Mastodon kicked off their spring tour schedule late last week, and with it they unveiled their new touring guitarist: Canadian shred virtuoso Nick Johnston.
The group have played four shows with Johnston so far, having begun a leg of dates May 8th at Chesterfield, Missouri’s Factory venue. They also played the massive Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio over the weekend, and just started up their co-headline tour with Coheed and Cambria.
The Toronto, Ontario-based riffer is the latest guitarist to step in following the surprise departure of founding guitarist Brent Hinds in March — a move the band’s Bill Kelliher later said “was a hard decision… [but] it was just time.” Prior to Johnston, YouTube virtuoso Ben Eller joined up with Mastodon at the TOOL Live in the Sand event in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
As for Johnston, his resume includes seven solo albums of prog-and-rock informed instrumental guitar music, though he’d also appeared on Polyphia’s Champagne album from 2016, as well as Peripehery’s Clear EP that same year. He’s also collabed with fellow Canadian prog-strumentalists Intervals, as well as Scale the Summit.
Johnston’s current role within Mastodon has yet to be officially explained by the founding band members, though he’s presumably at least helping the act get through their current tour commitments alongside Coheed.
That tour resumes tomorrow (May 13th) at Raleigh, North Carolina’s Red Hat Amphitheater. You’ll find the remaining dates details here.
Meanwhile, you can see some recent highlights of Johnston hanging on-stage with Mastodon — not to mention the mighty Cysquatch — via the fan shot footage up above and down below.