Why Gojira & Mastodon’s 2023 Co-Headline Tour Should Be On Every Metalhead’s Radar

Without question, Gojira and Mastodon are two of the most revered modern metal bands of this century. Both bands have built loyal fanbases through their unwavering core musical tropes, all while staying far and away from the latest sonic trends in a given year or decade. Whether it’s Gojira’s unforgiving sense of heavy songwriting or Mastodon’s ubiquitously progressive arrangements, neither band has catered to the masses or at least in ways like their peers Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, and Ghost have.

With that being said, Gojira and Mastodon are eyeing what’s likely to be their most ambitious year yet as they embark on their co-headlining arena/amphitheater tour across North America this spring. For many this tour may seem insignificant as far as what it indicates for the future of the metal scene at large. However, when taken into account that this tour provides the first concept of what Mastodon & Gojira are like as North American arena headliners, the implications of this tour start to paint a much bigger picture for the scene’s future.

To put it candidly, metal’s routine headliners are slowly yet surely going into retirement, therefore a new era of headliners is imminent as the older generations begin wrapping up their careers i.e. Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth. It’s an inevitable scenario that’s already started to take place, and the more the industry and concertgoers alike are cognizant of this the better chances it paints for bands like Gojira and Mastodon to be ushered in as next-gen headliners.

Speaking of metal’s future, the band offering direct support for Mastodon and Gojira’s tour is none other than Lorna Shore — one of metal’s most popularized and highly praised young extreme metal outfits. Lorna Shore getting the support slot on this tour not only emboldens the sentiment that there’s a hunger for a new generation of bands, but that extreme metal shouldn’t be limited to small club shows.

At the rate Lorna Shore has climbed in the scene they easily stand as one of metal’s most mainstream acts currently (the band is nearing 1 million monthly listeners), despite them sounding far from the norm of most mainstream metal. However, that’s exactly why Lorna Shore’s placement on this tour could not be more perfect, as neither Mastodon or Gojira have accumulated their respective followings from appeasing to the mainstream.

To further conclude the significants of this tour and growth of these bands, it’d be ignorant to not mention the fact that Mastodon and Gojira actually embarked on a co-headline North American tour together back in 2014. At the time this tour was limited to club venues and state theaters, but now some 9 years later both bands are slated to co-headline LA’s KIA Forum this spring.