PREDICTION: GOJIRA WILL BE TOURING THE U.S. WITH LAMB OF GOD IN AUGUST

It’s been quite a while since our favorite Frenchmen in Gojira have toured the U.S., and with a new album dropping in June this summer seems like the perfect time. And now we’ve got some good, hard clues as to what their touring plans may be.

Unbeknownst to me until Metal Injection posted about it today, Gojira will be appearing at the Heavy T.O. and Heavy MTL metal festivals in Toronto and Montreal on August 11th and 12th, respectively. It’s hard to imagine — although not impossible — that they’d fly all the way to North America just to play two shows, so I’m reasonably sure they’ll be playing some U.S. dates before or after the two Canadian festivals.

But here’s where it gets fun: trying to guess who they’ll be touring with! And again, we have some pretty solid clues.

First, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Gojira will not be headlining. Bands rarely headline their first tour out of the gate after an album’s release, and Gojira are certainly not in a position to do so, say, the way a huge band like Slipknot would be. They’ll probably play support tours for one or two years before attempting to headline the U.S.

Now, take a look at the lineups for Heavy T.O. on August 11th and Heavy MTL on August 12th, the days Gojira are appearing at each. Festivals like Heavy T.O./MTL and New England Metal and Hardcore Fest very often book bands that are already on tour together, so let’s assume Gojira are going to be touring with some band that’s playing the same festival days they are.

Slipknot could be a good touring partner for Gojira, but they’re already committed to the Rockstar Mayhem Tour. Lamb of God would be a fantastic fit stylistically, and they’re due for a U.S. headliner. Manson, Overkill and Dethklok make no sense stylistically speaking. High on Fire are on Mayhem also, and Protest the Hero just headlined here (plus they aren’t a perfect match). All the other bands are too small to take Gojira out on tour as support.

So… by process of deductive reasoning… Lamb of God will be taking Gojira out on tour in the U.S. this August. Heavy T.O./MTL have not released their complete lineups yet, but this makes so much sense NOT to be true.

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-VN