Grammy Award winners MASTODON will return to the road for the second leg of their acclaimed co-headline tour with OPETH this spring. The North American jaunt resumes on April 21 at Place Bell in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, stops in major markets coast-to-coast, and comes to a close on May 11 at Municipal Auditorium in Riverside, California.
A special BLABBERMOUTH.NET presale will begin on Tuesday, February 8 at 10:00 a.m. local time and end on Wednesday, February 9 at 10:00 p.m. local time. When prompted, type in the presale code “HUSHED2022” to access tickets before the general public. General on-sale will be Friday, February 11 at 10 a.m. local time.
Comments OPETH mainman Mikael Åkerfeldt: “We’re excited to come back to North America for the second leg of shows together with our ‘brothers from other mothers’ in MASTODON. And… hello, Canada! It’s been too long, we know! We’ll soon dust off the ole guitars etc. and get in shape for this run. The last tour was quite splendid; the only downside being the restrictions. We don’t know for sure how it’s going to pan out this time around, but we’re hoping for a bit more freedom to move around. Crossing fingers here. See you semi-soon! Signing off from a rainy, gloomy Stockholm, Mikael (on behalf of OPETH).”
Of the first leg, Consequence Of Sound wrote: “The crowd swayed and sang the new tunes as loud as they could, as the band shook all 12,000 square feet of the ballroom with their tremendous sound, which was accompanied by psychedelic visuals being displayed on a huge LED wall, plus gnarly lasers shooting high above past the balcony.”
MASTODON and OPETH tour dates:
Apr 21 – Montreal, QC – Place Bell
Apr 22 – Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Apr 23 – Cleveland, OH – The Agora
Apr 24 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
Apr 26 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met
Apr 28 – Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom
Apr 29 – Detroit, MI – The Masonic
Apr 30 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave/Eagles Club
May 01 – St. Paul, MN – The Myth
May 03 – Saskatoon, SK – TCU Place
May 04 – Calgary, AB – Grey Eagle Events Centre
May 05 – Edmonton, AB – EDM Expo Center
May 07 – Vancouver, BC – Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre Theatre Bowl
May 08 – Seattle, WA – Paramount Theater
May 09 – Portland, OR – Keller Auditorium
May 11 – Riverside, CA – Municipal Auditorium
Last November, MASTODON was announced as one of the “Best Metal Performance” nominees at the 64th annual Grammy Awards, which will be held on April 3, 2022, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The progressive metallers were nominated for their song “Pushing The Tides”, the first single from their latest album, “Hushed And Grim”, which came out in October.
The follow-up to 2017’s “Emperor Of Sand”, “Hushed And Grim”was recorded at West End Sound, which is located inside of Ember City, the rehearsal facility that members of MASTODON manage in Atlanta. Helming the effort was Grammy-winning producer/mixer/engineer David Bottrill, who has previously worked with MUSE, DREAM THEATER and TOOL, among many others.
The “Hushed And Grim” artwork was created by longtime MASTODON collaborator Paul Romano, who also designed the sleeves for “Crack The Skye”, “Blood Mountain”, “Leviathan” and more.
“Emperor Of Sand” debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. That LP was nominated for the 2018 Grammy Award for “Best Rock Album,” and its opening track, “Sultan’s Curse”, won the Grammy Award for “Best Metal Performance.”
OPETH played its first show with drummer Sami Karppinen (THERION) last November 16 at ExploreAsheville.com Arena in Asheville, North Carolina at the opening date of the band’s tour with MASTODON and ZEAL & ARDOR.
Karppinen stepped in to play with OPETH after the Swedish progressive metallers parted ways with their longtime drummer Martin “Axe” Axenrot due to what they called “a conflict of interests.”
Axenrot officially joined OPETH a decade and a half ago as the replacement for Martin Lopez, who left the band in May 2006 after being plagued by illness and anxiety attacks, which forced him to miss several of OPETH‘s tours.
