Metallica’s Impressive Line-Up. Are You Ready, Dublin?
Metallica has a current support line-up featuring Pantera, Gojira and Avatar. From metal legends to modern innovators, the tour brings together three distinct generations of heavy metal music.
Few major rock acts have treated support slots as seriously as Metallica has on M72, and the latest line-up reflects that approach: Pantera, Gojira and Avatar. On Friday and Sunday this upcoming weekend, Metallica will visit Aviva Stadium, Dublin. A few tickets are still available.
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Three bands. Three distinct eras and expressions of heavy music. One of the most ambitious touring packages metal fans are likely to see this year.
Seeing Pantera and Metallica on the same bill feels less like a support slot and more like a meeting of metal institutions
Despite continued speculation among fans, Metallica has not announced a follow-up to their latest album 72 Seasons. For now, the band’s focus remains firmly on the road.
At the centre of the current 2026 tour remains the now-established “No Repeat Weekend” concept, where Metallica performs two shows in the same city, delivering different setlists and rotating support acts across both nights.
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The result is less a traditional concert tour and more a curated live experience designed around variety, scale and repeat attendance.
Pantera’s Legacy and Gojira’s Evolutions
There are few names in modern metal with the weight of Pantera.
The band’s influence on groove metal remains impossible to ignore, and its return to the live stage has brought renewed attention to one of heavy music’s most significant catalogues. With Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown joined by Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante, today’s version of Pantera functions both as a tribute to its history and a living continuation of its legacy.
For many fans, seeing Pantera and Metallica on the same bill feels less like a support slot and more like a meeting of metal institutions.
If Pantera represents metal’s past, Gojira embodies much of its present.
The French band has spent more than two decades building a reputation for technical excellence, progressive songwriting and an unmistakable sense of purpose. Albums such as Magma and Fortitude elevated the group from cult favourite to global headline act, while maintaining credibility among dedicated metal audiences.
On the M72 tour, Gojira provides a bridge between Metallica’s legacy and the modern evolution of heavy music.
The Swedish group Avatar has carved out a unique position within contemporary metal through its combination of melodic aggression, visual storytelling and theatrical stagecraft. Frontman Johannes Eckerström has become one of the genre’s most distinctive performers, helping transform Avatar concerts into immersive experiences rather than straightforward live shows.
This year the attraction of Metallica’s tour is beyond the band itself – it displays a wider ecosystem of bands, histories and sounds that now travel alongside Metallica
Their presence adds a different texture to the tour: darker, stranger and deliberately unpredictable.
Still Waiting for the Next Album
The question surrounding every Metallica tour remains the same: What’s next? So far, the band has offered no official indication that a new studio album is imminent. Until that changes, M72 remains the primary focus and the centrepiece of Metallica’s current era.
Yet the absence of new music has done little to diminish the band’s momentum. If anything, the scale of the production and the quality of the supporting line-up underline Metallica’s continued position at the top of the live music world.
In 2026, the attraction is not only Metallica itself. It’s the wider ecosystem of bands, histories and sounds that now travel alongside it.
