According to Pollstar, this past summer’s “The Metal Tour Of The Year” — featuring MEGADETH, LAMB OF GOD, TRIVIUM and HATEBREED — sold 171,365 tickets over 24 concerts between August 20 and September 28, an average of more than 7,000 tickets per night. The tour, which racked up a gross of just shy of $8 million, played at mostly amphitheaters, including FivePoint Amphitheater in Irvine, California, where more than 10,000 tickets were sold, and Soaring Eagle Amphitheater in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, where the four bands played to more than 11,000 fans.
Originally scheduled to open the tour was IN FLAMES, but the band ultimately pulled out of the trek because of the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe.
The Canadian leg of “The Metal Tour Of The Year” — consisting of shows in Toronto, Laval and Quebec City — was postponed to spring 2022 due to restrictions in the Quebec province and international logistical issues.
“The Metal Tour Of The Year” marked MEGADETH‘s first run of shows in North America since 2017. It was also MEGADETH‘s first tour with bassist James LoMenzo in nearly 12 years.
Each song in MEGADETH‘s hourlong set — featuring a wall of Marshall amps and LED screens across the stage and the drums perched high above on an elevated drum riser — was accompanied by scrolling videos featuring images that have become familiar to the band’s fans — aliens, war, the apocalypse and Vic Rattlehead, the band’s iconic mascot.
This past September, LAMB OF GOD singer Randy Blythe told Asbury Park Press about “The Metal Tour Of The Year”: “The reality of it is that it has been very complex, very involved, getting this thing on the road. And there has been constant communication between management and venues and booking agents and road crews from not just our band, not just the bands that are on this tour, but from all the other bands that are all trying to go on tour at the same time.
“So there are a lot of moving pieces. And people are, like, ‘Why didn’t you play any of these dates?’ and it’s, like, ‘Well, guess what: Everybody’s going on tour all at once. Everybody’s trying to secure dates. Everything is a juggling act and it’s constantly a moving target.'”
