MEGADETH RETURNS AS MAIN STAGE HEADLINER WITH LAMB OF GOD CONFIRMED

GIGANTOUR is back.

The fast and furious traveling festival that was hailed last year by Revolver magazine as "the mother of all shred fests" will kick off its second year in early September.

Look for the tour--the brainchild of MEGADETH frontman DAVE MUSTAINE --to launch in the Northeast and to work its way through 25 major markets before wrapping in mid-October, with Xbox's "Gears of War" sponsoring the trek. MEGADETH will return as the festival headliner on a bill that includes fellow heavy-hitters Lamb of God, plus Opeth, Arch Enemy, Overkill, Into Eternity, Sanctity and The Smashup all confirmed for these mostly outdoor shows. Other second stage artists will be announced soon.

MUSTAINE personally hand-picks all the GIGANTOUR bands, with a sharp eye on true musicianship. He says GIGANTOUR is a great place for like-minded music fans to see a full day of music on two stages without breaking the bank, and he's glad the tour is back in '06. " This is the concert that I, as a heavy metal music fan, would want to see," says MUSTAINE. "It is going to be something to look forward to each year, to see what kind of tremendous talent we can assemble, for GIGANTOUR festivals in the years to come."

Lamb of God's Mark Morton says, "Megadeth is one of the main reasons I started playing metal guitar in the first place. To finally tour with them is really exciting and it's a great way to start off our world tour supporting Sacrament . We've been dying to get the new material up and running on the live stage. We've worked so hard on the new record--it's really a great sense of accomplishment to see the new tunes come to life in a live setting. We're really looking forward to this one." The group's Chris Adler says, "Teaming up with Megadeth on GIGANTOUR is a metal dream come true. The lineup represents some of the most proficient metal bands and players from across the world and we are looking forward to joining forces and kicking ass. We're planning on a nice long set, introducing a lot of new and very heavy material from Sacrament as well as keeping the brutal live tracks from our previous albums. We can't wait to take the stage and destroy it."

Last year's inaugural GIGANTOUR was a six-week trek that was hailed by the Miami Herald for featuring "only bands whose musicianship matches their ability to melt faces with sheer volume and power." The Orange County Register agreed, saying, "...it does a heart good to see Mustaine able to buck the chameleon trend of rock and stay firm to his ideals, keeping the music the priority and not the image."

As for joining forces with GIGANTOUR, Craig Davison, Director of Global Games Marketing for Xbox, says, "We're totally jazzed about the partnership between Gigantour 2006 and our forthcoming Xbox 360 blockbuster, Gears of War ! Partnering a music extravaganza like GIGANTOUR with the launch of a mega-hit game like Gears of War captures the excitement around two awesome happenings for fans of music and video games!" Gears of War is a blockbuster video game exclusively for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system that blends tactical action with survival horror. Gears of War thrusts gamers into a harrowing story of humankind's epic battle for survival and is available this holiday.

In other GIGANTOUR news, Image Entertainment will release two-DVD and two-CD sets of GIGANTOUR 2005, which included Megadeth, Dream Theatre, Fear Factory, Anthrax, Nevermore, Life of Agony, Symphony X, Dry Kill Logic and Bobaflex. The CD is out August 22, with the DVD hitting stores September 5--just in time for this year's tour.

Stay tuned for more details, or check out www.GIGANTOUR.com , www.megadeth.com , www.myspace.com/gigantour2006 , and www.myspace.com/megadeth .

The current itinerary is below (note: exact line-up for shows subject to change).


September:
7 San Diego - TBA
8 Oakland - Oakland Coliseum
9 San Luis Obispo - Pozo Saloon Amphitheatre
10 San Bernardino - Hyundai Pavilion
12 Las Vegas - TBA
13 Phoenix - Dodge Theatre
15 Salt Lake City - USANA
16 Denver - Coors Amphitheatre
17 Albuquerque - Journal Pavilion
19 TBD
21 Milwaukee - Eagles Ballroom
22 Chicago - Congress Theatre
23 Columbus - Nationwide Are
24 Detroit - DTE Energy Amphitheatre
25 Toronto - Molson Amphitheatre
27 Montreal - Bell Centre
28 Nassau - Nassau Coliseum
29 TBD
30 Holmdel - PNC Bank Center
October
1 TBD
3 TBD
5 TBD
6 Tampa - St Pete Times Forum
7 Orlando - Hard Rock Live
8 Sunrise FL - Bank Atlantic Forum

CRAP CRAP CRAP!!! Fuck Dave Mustaine!!! What kind of a Metalfest is this?? FUCK HIM!!!

I heard he official changed his name to dave mu$taine

I hope this tour bombs big time.If it does maybe Dave wont do another GiganTURD next year

vomitthesoul said:

did you expect that since dave USED to play thrash metal 20 years ago that all of a sudden his own tour is going to be some kind of super kickass speed fest straight out of 1986? Overkill, Exodus, Venom, Nuclear Assault, Slayer, Kreator, Destruction, Tankard, Motorhead, plus a bonus set by Metallica, who grew their hair back, started drinking again and are scheduled to play all their 80's albums back to back.....this is 2006 dude, Arch Enemy and Lamb of God are the big metal stars now, and major American Metal fests are going to feature this shit. Sad but true...

opeth is good.... so is megadeth
tickets last year wasn't that expensive so show up late?
or hope for good second stage bads which is unlikely....
people are complaining but this happened when the summer sanitarium tour went off too
linkin park and limp bizkit?? give me a break but what can you do the show will sell out anyway

i'm guessing the newengland date will be the 19th

INTO ETERNITY!!!

Only band I'd like to see is Anthrax.

pam said:

Wasn't that last year, they were on it?

Ryan_M said:


I dont care what Log of Turd and Arch Enemy are,they both SUCK!!! To bad the scene isnt like the way it was in the 80s or early 90s.It has gone WAY downhill since then.With the birth of Grunge,Metalcore,and Numetal the old school is fucking dying.Its a real shame :(

dwellingsickness said:


Oh. I didn't bother to read it very carefully...

Old school is never dying it is sleeping.

American metal fans who control what is played are mostly betwixt the ages 14-18 and thus we have terrible metal concerts over here.

Go to Germany and your within an hours trip of the greatest metal concerts of all time.

Hey.... I'm going!! MEGADETH and OVER KILL....... That's worth the $35.00 to $40.00 to get in.........

Megadeth + Opeth + Arch Enemy + Overkill + Into Eternity = me happy.

pam said:

Haha no biggie, did not want you to waste money to go see them, then find out they were not on it

not a terrible lineup, although the only bands I really care about are MEGADETH (obviously), Overkill and Into Eternity.

From what I hear the new Megadeth cd is gonna be a total return to the old school style, much more so then even 'The System has Failed' which had some fucking killer songs. Here's hoping.

CANDY STRIPER DEATH ORGY said:


Not really worth seeing this show in my opinion.I can see Overkill on their own for less money.And Im all set with MegaDUD

Anthony nli said:

Return to the old school style? I dont think so.Dave's good songwriting days are way over.

i'll go just for opeth

I've seen Megadeth twice, Into Eternity three times, I will die happy if I NEVER see Opeth again, Arch Angela fucking sucks (and I've endured them like 6 times already), and I don't like Overkill. I will use would-be ticket money on beer and stay home for this one!

pam said:

I'll be avoiding this tour also

vomitthesoul said:

i disagree. The System Has Failed was a really good album with some awesome songs that were pretty damn old school. I predict the new one will be even thrashier.

Anthony nli said:

I heard the SHF and didnt like it at all

Chris get your fingers out of your ass........ The new Megadeth is going to be killer!! The System Has Failed was pretty good. May'be one or two songs could've been left off. You're starting to sound like somebody we both know.

holy crap i didnt even see that Opeth is on this. i'll go just for that.

Yeti said:

bowwwwing

I really fuckin hate dave mustaine, but thats nothing out of the ordinary. the only decent band on this line-up is overkill, and im not payin 35 bucks just to see them

i saw megadeth last year, and it really wasn't that good. dave mustaine was jumping around in one of those puffy frenchmen shirts (fuckin frog) and if i dont see that ever again, it isn't gonna break my heart!

CANDY STRIPER DEATH ORGY said:


Who the fuck is Chris?