The Metal Tour of the Year, starring Megadeth, Lamb of God, Trivium, and Hatebreed, spent the last month making its way across the United States after its first edition was postponed to 2020. Unfortunately for fans Canadians, the three planned dates of the trek in the country have again been postponed.

a official statement cites “restrictions in the province of Quebec and international logistics issues” as reasons for the postponement, promising new dates will be announced for spring 2022. But Metal Sucks has good authority that the “restrictions” and “issues” responsible for the decision are, at least in part, the Covid-19 vaccinations currently required by Canada for Americans to enter the country by land. A reliable source tells us that Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta, and Lamb of God’s Willie Adler are unvaccinated tour staff. After a 16-month ban, Canada started authorizing Americans fully vaccinated in the country for non-essential travel starting August 9.

Jasta in particular recently expressed on social media his distaste for maintaining Covid-19 regulations, blaming “fear of porn“for paranoia, falsely calling politicians for not wearing masks (reposting a video that shows officials briefly removing masks for a photo and then putting them back on; Jasta claimed otherwise), and saying it is “so fucked upTo force children to wear masks (in a retweet calling the behavior “child abuse”), while praising Texas’ unrestricted approach to dealing with the pandemic. Mustaine, meanwhile, called on audiences to fight “medical tyranny” during a recent show.

Current regulations in Quebec, since August 1, 7,500 people have gathered in indoor arenas such as those of the tour, Place Bell (Laval, in the Montreal region) and the Videotron Center (Quebec). Jasta, trying to portray the rules of the province in a negative light, tweeted a screenshot of an outdated measure or referring to private gatherings and not concerts, calling for a limit of 50 people.

While capacity restrictions may also be at play in the tour’s decision to cancel its Canadian dates – with much larger capacities sold, what would these sites do with tickets already sold beyond the amount allowed? – it is misleading to be vague about the reason for the cancellation and to disregard the vaccination status of tour members as a factor. You can’t worry about capacity restrictions if you’re not even allowed to enter a country.

Over 78% of Quebec residents are fully immunized (73% received at least one dose), exceeding the american rate 65% and 56%, respectively.

Mustaine, addressing the crowd at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, NJ on September 15, asked people to “look around,” noting that “we’re not panicking”, before saying:

“Right now what is happening is tyranny. This is called tyranny. Watch it when you get home. And the tyranny isn’t just in government. Tyranny right now is in the schools and tyranny is in the medical field. “

Hatebreed will not be participating on rescheduled Metal Tour of the Year dates next year.

The remaining US tour dates are as follows:

09/25 Indianola, IA – Knotfest Iowa (no hate race)
09/26 St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheater – St. Louis
09/28 Minneapolis, MN – Armory