Meshuggah returns to Hampton Roads for its 40th-anniversary tour

The Swedish metal band brings The Forty-Year Anomaly tour, with Testament and Blood Incantation, to The Dome by Rutter Mills on Friday, Feb. 26.

The last time Meshuggah played Hampton Roads, on Sept. 21, 2022, the crowd packed into The NorVa in Norfolk. This time the band is bringing a bigger bill to a bigger room, and a milestone to go with it. Meshuggah plays The Dome by Rutter Mills in Virginia Beach on Friday, Feb. 26, 2027, with Testament and Blood Incantation in support. The show starts at 7 p.m.

The date was announced Oct. 27, and tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster. The Dome holds about 3,500, a clear step up from the 2022 club show.

The occasion is a big one. The run is called The Forty-Year Anomaly, and it marks the band's 40th anniversary with a 35-date North American headlining tour. Loudwire reports that it launches Feb. 12 in Toronto and runs through May 14 in Milwaukee, with stops including Detroit's Masonic Temple Theatre and, per Live Nation, Red Rocks in April. Virginia Beach lands two weeks into the run.

Forty years is a long time for any band, and a strange one for a band like this. Meshuggah's lurching, polyrhythmic riffs were never built for easy listening, and yet they have become one of the most influential sounds in modern metal. The tour name feels like a joke the band is in on: four decades in, they are still an anomaly.

Four decades in, Meshuggah is still the anomaly.

The support slots make this more than a headline show. Testament is the veteran Bay Area thrash band, a link to the genre's 1980s roots. Blood Incantation is the Colorado death-metal group known for its experimental approach, one of the more interesting bands of its generation. Put the three together and you have a bill that runs from old-school thrash to progressive death metal, with the headliner sitting somewhere outside both.

That's why the 7 p.m. start matters. With three bands on the bill, this is not a night to show up for the headliner only. Blood Incantation, in particular, is worth getting in early for.

For Hampton Roads metal fans, the jump from The NorVa to The Dome says something about where Meshuggah is now. A band that once played clubs is now booking rooms several times the size, and bringing two strong supporting acts along with it. It's a night that the region doesn't get often, and one that will draw from well beyond Virginia Beach.

Presales started Oct. 27 and the general sale opened Oct. 30, so tickets are on sale now. A late-February Friday at the Oceanfront is quiet season for most of the city, but not for this crowd.

Forty years, three bands, one long, loud night. Get there early.

Sources: MESHUGGAH Announces 'The Forty-Year Anomaly' 2027 North American Tour With TESTAMENT And BLOOD INCANTATION – Blabbermouth (blabbermouth.net); Meshuggah 2027 tour with Testament, Blood Incantation – Loudwire (loudwire.com); Meshuggah: The Forty-Year Anomaly w/ Testament, Blood Incantation – Live Nation (livenation.com); Testament events – Live Nation (livenation.com); Meshuggah announces 40th anniversary tour featuring Testament and Blood Incantation – Metal Injection (metalinjection.net); Meshuggah at The Dome by Rutter Mills – JamBase (jambase.com)