Megadeth’s Upcoming Tour Lineup Is An Odd Yet Interesting Mix

It wasn’t long ago when Megadeth had one of the hottest metal tours on the block which was fittingly coined ‘The Metal Tour Of The Year.’ The 2021 and 2022 co-headlining tour consisted of Megadeth and modern heavyweights Lamb of God with opening acts Trivium, Hatebreed, and later In Flames. Nearly every band on the bill offered something unique yet sonically similar enough to make it an air tight package. Not to mention, the tour sold exceptionally well with averaging 7,000 tickets sold across 24 dates from its first leg. To say it was a smashing success for Megadeth would be an understatement, and with their recent Grammy nomination for their well received 2022 LP The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead, the band was experiencing quite a moment to say the least.

However, despite the recent wins for Megadeth guitarist Kiko Loureiro exiting the band was a pretty big blow to the fans, as he’s made significant contributions to Megadeth since joining in 2015. In fact, in the past Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine had been fairly open about his admiration for Loureiro and he’s gone as far as saying, “Megadeth has had guys like Jeff [Young] and Marty [Friedman], but Kiko is the best we’ve ever had.”

Now with the band’s new guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, who was recommended by Loureiro prior to exiting the band, Megadeth aren’t quite in the same position they were in a couple years ago, though at no fault of Mäntysaari who is in fact filling the shoes of lead guitarist incredibly well, according to Mustaine.

With all that being said, the band’s recent headlining tour announcement comes as a surprise to many fans, particularly with the supporting lineup Megadeth has in place. Nu metal giants Mudvayne and metalcore pioneers All That Remains are slated to support Megadeth on their upcoming late summer North American, which is titled the Destroy All Enemies tour. Maybe the tour’s title is an attempt at the band poking fun at themselves because it doesn’t appear they’ll be making any new friends with a tour lineup that’s such a stark contrast from their recent North American tours.

After one look at the comments section on Megadeth’s instagram post for the tour announcement, it’s clear that the most upvoted comments are from fans being harshly critical or puzzled by Megadeth’s decision to have Mudvayne and All That Remains as support, and that’s putting it lightly. No disrespect to either Mudvayne or All The Remains as both bands have made significant contributions to early 2000s metal and are great on their own merits, but the three bands together just seems at odds with Megadeth status as a legacy band. If they’d added another opener that was more sonically like minded and a newer act like Havok, Enforced, or even Power Trip the bill would possibly seem a little less jarring to fans. Better yet, a co-headlining tour with Pantera, whom are currently headlining arenas across the states, would do wonders for both bands especially given the demand for the recent Pantera reunion.

Regardless, both Mudvayne and All That Remains can draw on their own, but it’ll be interesting to see if Megadeth fans are the primary ticket buyers for this tour or if there’s a healthy mix from each of the acts’ core fanbases. Or better yet, maybe there’s a more shared appreciation for all acts than the comments suggest. It’s entirely possible, but tickets sales and the crowd response at the shows will no doubt be the deciding factors.