Mastodon Canceled Several International Shows To Deal With ‘A Personal Family Matter’

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Even the heaviest of heavy metal bands, unfortunately, have personal issues to take care of from time to time. According to Billboard, Mastodon, one of the most popular metal bands going today, are cancelling a bunch of upcoming shows due to what they’re calling a “personal family matter.”

No further detail is given, but no further detail is necessary. What we do know is that Mastodon has 16 international shows that they were going to be embarking on this summer. In addition to missing the upcoming Heavy Montreal Fest this August, they will miss a multitude of dates across Europe. However, they were able to reschedule a September date in Iceland to show up at the Rokkjötnar Festival in December. There’s no indication that any of these other dates will be made up, but the potential is still there, at least for the time being.

Mastodon intends to return to touring with some dates in Latin America this September, so at least this isn’t an open-ended thing. Mastodon is the rare heavy metal band to emerge in the 2000s and actually find some footing, as opposed to legacy acts like Metallica who hit it big when metal was still popular. Of course, Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds isn’t even into metal anyway, and their sound has gotten a little less heavy, so maybe metal bands aren’t the right comparison point. Regardless, while this is a bummer for Mastodon fans in Europe hoping to see the band play, there’s no shortage of metal bands across the pond. You can’t swing a dead cat in Scandinavia without hitting a death metal band, at which point said death metal band would presumably thank you for hitting them with a dead cat.

(Via Billboard)