Metal or rock concerts that are great from top to bottom are a rarity. While a tour can overall have a killer lineup and be an excellent experience overall, there are generally weaker sets or bands that don’t hit the mark like the rest of the musicians that perform on a given night. If anything, there is usually an act on the bill that underwhelms compared to the rest. Oftentimes, there is at least one group that doesn’t have as good of a show as all the others.
But The Mega-Monsters Tour avoided this problem. Consisting of Mastodon, Gojira, and Lorna Shore, this tour was absolutely stacked with incredible bands putting on fantastic performances. Shows that melted the faces of audience members via the power of delectable heavy metal. A billing where all members involved killed it.
To begin, let’s discuss Lorna Shore: the opening act. As an opener, the band kicked off the evening with a bang, playing a six song set entirely comprised of tracks from Pain Remains: arguably the best metal album of 2022. As a blackened deathcore band, Lorna Shore has very creative riffs with some extreme metal elements, and the group features intense guttural vocals from front man Will Ramos who has the voice of a demon drowning in a trash can (and I mean that as a complement). They have a creatively unique sound.
And Lorna Shore brought this dynamic sound into their live show. The riffs and the breakdowns (especially the breakdowns because Lorna Shore fuses black and death metal with metalcore after all) were heavy enough to break the crust of the earth, and Ramos’ vocal performance was on point, allowing Lorna Shore to be one of the more high quality openers I have ever seen. They were great.
Next, we have Gojira: a progressive groove metal band that never disappoints with their live performances, and true to their nature, Gojira played an explosive show on The Mega-Monsters Tour. The pyro-technics were out in force and in tune to the heavy riffs, the mosh pit was intense to where a large contingent of the audience sat down and rowed an imaginary Viking boat, Mario Duplantier was still top of class in terms of his drumming, and the group played a great set that mixed in a bunch of new and classic Gojira tracks, including “The Art Of Dying”: a great Gojira song (one of their best actually) that the band hadn’t played live that much in previous tours over the last ten years or so.
Overall, Gojira were exceptional even though I had one minor critique. See, the set was missing former beloved live staples like “Toxic Garbage Island,” “The Heaviest Matter of the Universe,” and “L’enfant Sauvage,” which was unfortunate. After all, I (and many others) love these ferocious mosh pit inducing songs, and I admittedly missed them. It was an absence that was sadly felt.
Yet with that said, Gojira’s set still featured heavy hitters like “Flying Whales,” “Stranded,” and “The Gift of Guilt.” Songs that truly made up for some of the tracks that were MIA, and as a result, Gojira still put on an electric performance by playing some truly great tracks plucked from the band’s impressive discography and doing so with an unmatched ferocity. It was still an excellent show.
Finally we have Mastodon: a big sludge metal band from Atlanta, Georgia that I have already written about on this column previously. As musicians, Mastodon are very eclectic. None of their albums sound identical, featuring styles that range from heavy chunky riffs to inventive prog metal, but on The Mega- Monsters Tour, Mastodon elected to focus on the heavier material, forgoing any songs from The Hunter and Once More Around The Sun as well as featuring only one track from from their classic prog metal album Crack The Skye.
This could’ve been problematic. After all, Crack The Skye is regarded as one of Mastodon’s best albums and features “Oblivion”: one of the Mastodon’s biggest hits and a song that the band did not play during their Iowa stop of the Mega-Monsters Tour. Which could’ve been an issue because it is one of Mastodon’s most identifiable songs.
Yet with that said, the absence of “Oblivion” made logical sense. After all, “Oblivion” is a moodier more downcast song and Mastodon were clearly aiming to keep the crowd energized through their entire set, playing beloved heavy metal bangers like “Blood and Thunder,” “March Of The Fire Ants,” and “Crystal Skull.” It was a true heavy metal set with a fantastic sound, and when combined with the pyro-technics and the impressive light show, Mastodon put on an A+ performance. A set that stood toe-to-toe with the bands that preceded them. Proving that The Mega-Monsters Tour had a killer lineup from top to bottom.
