Top 10 Tours We're Circling on the 2026 Calendar

The calendar's already bleeding ink. Between farewell runs that might actually be farewell runs, reunion announcements nobody saw coming, and a few heritage acts who refuse to act their age 🤘, 2026 is shaping up to be the kind of year where you blow the vacation days on gas money and regret absolutely none of it. Here's what we're counting down to, in no particular order, with a little something to spin while you wait for the van to pull up.

1. Metallica, M72 World Tour

The thing about M72 is that it refuses to end, and honestly, we're not complaining. The in-the-round stage, the no-repeat-setlist trick across two nights in a city, the fact that Rob Trujillo still moves like a man possessed by a very athletic ghost. It all adds up to a live experience that's justified every extension. The fall residency in Las Vegas is the one most of our crew are plotting around, because seeing "Orion" bounce around the inside of the Sphere-adjacent desert is the kind of bucket-list nonsense that only makes sense in your forties. Click here for Master of Puppets on vinyl.

2. Iron Maiden

Maiden in 2026 is Maiden doing what Maiden does, which is to say hauling a full theatrical production across continents like it's nothing, with Bruce Dickinson still hitting notes that would hospitalize lesser men. If you've never seen Eddie lumber out mid-"Iron Maiden" and felt the back of your neck go cold, you've got a gap in your life that needs filling. Bring earplugs, bring a patched denim vest, bring your dad. Click here for Live After Death on vinyl.

3. Megadeth, The Farewell Tour

Dave Mustaine says this is the end of Megadeth as a touring concern, and we've learned to take these declarations with a grain of salt the size of a festival burrito, BUT the setlists have been reading like a love letter to the catalog. "Hangar 18" into "Tornado of Souls" into "Holy Wars" is the kind of run that reminds you why Megadeth has always been the band thrash nerds argue about at 2 a.m. Go for the shredding, stay for the slightly unhinged stage banter. Click here for Rust in Peace on vinyl.

4. Rush, Fifty Something

Nobody had this on their 2026 bingo card. A Rush reunion without Neil Peart felt unthinkable for a decade, and it's still complicated, but Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have made clear this is a celebration and a reckoning both. Whoever ends up behind the kit is going to be doing the heaviest job in rock history, and we're going to be in the crowd holding our breath for the opening hi-hat of "Tom Sawyer." Click here for Moving Pictures on vinyl.

5. Babymetal, 2026 World Tour

Say what you want about Babymetal, and people have said plenty, but the live show is not up for debate. The Kami Band is a straight-up nuclear event, the choreography is tighter than most headliners manage in a whole career, and the crossover crowd it pulls (metalheads, weebs, confused dads, the occasional hypebeast who took a wrong turn) makes for some of the best people-watching in the game. The Latin American leg with Halestorm on support is the bill we're eyeing hardest. Click here for Metal Forth on vinyl.

6. My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade Anniversary

We know, we know, it's not trve kvlt. Skip the paragraph if you must. But anyone who lived through 2006 knows The Black Parade was a gateway drug for a generation of kids who are now running half the metal labels worth caring about. Gerard Way fronting a full-album performance of that record, in 2026, with the entire arena sobbing through "Famous Last Words," is going to be cathartic in a way we're not quite ready to talk about. Click here for a tee to throw on at the show.

7. Dethklok and Amon Amarth

On paper it reads like a joke pitch. A cartoon death metal band co-headlining with actual Viking death metal royalty. In practice it's one of the smartest pairings of the year, because Brendon Small writes riffs that could hang on any real extreme metal bill, and Amon Amarth have been operating at festival-headliner level for so long that their support slots feel like blessings. Expect longships. Expect cartoons on the IMAG. Expect a pit that moves like a tide. Click here for The Dethalbum III on vinyl, and click here for Surtur Rising on vinyl.

8. Dimmu Borgir with Hypocrisy and Suffocation

August, North America, a package tour that reads like someone finally let the kvlt kids plan their own prom. Dimmu's orchestral black metal spectacle has only gotten more ridiculous with age, in the BEST possible sense, and sandwiching Hypocrisy and Suffocation on the same bill is the kind of move that's going to put serious miles on a lot of battle jackets. This is the tour you drive six hours for. Click here for Godless Savage Garden on vinyl.

9. Twisted Sister featuring Sebastian Bach

Here's the wild one. Dee Snider has stepped back for health reasons, and Sebastian Bach (yes, that Sebastian Bach) is stepping into the frontman role for Twisted Sister's first North American dates in ages. On paper it's preposterous. In practice, Bach has the pipes, the hair, and roughly the right amount of swagger to pull off "We're Not Gonna Take It" without anyone feeling short-changed. We're going out of morbid curiosity and we're staying because Twisted Sister's catalog hits harder than the glam-metal footnote it sometimes gets filed under. (We’re all sold out of Twisted Sister vinyl, SORRY! Restock soon.)

10. Muse

Fine, it's not metal. Fight us in the comments. Muse in 2026 is pulling a summer bill with Bloc Party, Portugal. The Man, and The Temper Trap on select dates, which is frankly an unhinged assemblage of vibes, and Matt Bellamy at his most theatrical is still one of the great rock spectacles of the century. If you've ever suspected that "Stockholm Syndrome" secretly wants to be a Rage Against the Machine song, the live version will confirm it for you. Click here for Absolution on vinyl.

A note: tour schedules shift, supports drop, guitarists sprain thumbs. If you're building a pilgrimage around any of these, double-check the dates before you book the Airbnb. And if you see us in the pit, buy us a warm beer. We'll return the favor in setlist debates on the walk back to the car.