It wasn’t long ago when Megadeth had one of the hottest metal tours on the block which was fittingly coined ‘The Metal Tour Of The Year.’ The 2021 and 2022 co-headlining tour consisted of Megadeth and modern heavyweights Lamb of God with opening acts Trivium, Hatebreed, and later In Flames. Nearly every band on the bill offered something unique yet sonically similar enough to make it an air tight package. Not to mention, the tour sold exceptionally well with averaging 7,000 tickets sold across 24 dates from its first leg. To say it was a smashing success for Megadeth would be an understatement, and with their recent Grammy nomination for their well received 2022 LP The Sick,
The Dying… And The Dead, the band was experiencing quite a moment to say the leasth
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However, despite the recent wins for Megadeth guitarist Kiko Loureiro exiting the band was a pretty big blow to the fans, as he’s made significant contributions to Megadeth since joining in 2015. In fact, in the past Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine had been fairly open about his admiration for Loureiro and he’s gone as far as saying, “Megadeth has had guys like Jeff [Young] and Marty [Friedman], but Kiko is the best we’ve ever had.”
Now with the band’s new guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, who was recommended by Loureiro prior to exiting the band, Megadeth aren’t quite in the same position they were in a couple years ago, though at no fault of Mäntysaari who is in fact filling the shoes of lead guitarist incredibly well, according to mustaine
