Slipknot and Disturbed have officially announced their co-headlining 2025 end-of-year tour, branding it one of the most aggressive touring collaborations in modern metal. The announcement dropped on November 26, 2025 via coordinated posts across both bands’ social platforms, showing matching visuals of cracked city skylines, sparks, and industrial typography. The timing alone sent waves through rock media, coming just as fans began speculating about year-end festival appearances. This tour didn’t tease— it detonated without warning, and the reception was instant: millions of views in the first hour.
Both bands have described the tour as a “collision of forces rather than a partnership,” placing emphasis on production intensity instead of nostalgia or cross-genre marketing. Insiders close to the crews revealed that planning began in early July 2025, after a European summer festival show where both camps shared stage coordinators and pyro teams. What started as a mutual respect conversation reportedly shifted into talks about what a full arena spectacle would look like if the brakes were removed. No acoustic segments, no intermissions— only a rotating headline format and synchronized artillery-grade staging.
The concept quickly evolved into alternating nightly headliner slots, meaning each band closes half the shows while sharing equal production build-out. Mega rigs, motion structures, flame grids, and rotating light trusses were built specifically for the tour and will travel as a single combined configuration. Sources say the entire stage grid weighs almost double the average rock arena touring build and took custom engineering to meet indoor fire code compliance. If arena logistics had limits, this tour forced venues to stretch them long before public announcement.
The tour launches December 3, 2025 at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington, marking Slipknot’s first major West Coast arena opener in two years. Disturbed will headline night one, followed by Slipknot closing the second Seattle date. From there, the tour bulldozes through major U.S. markets. On December 6, 2025, the bands hit Chase Center in San Francisco, California, followed by December 8, 2025 at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Each show is expected to run past 23 songs total, split between both bands, with zero shared tracks— a deliberate decision to preserve sonic identity.
Momentum continues December 11, 2025 at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, where arena seats were reportedly being resold at tour-record numbers within minutes of going live. December 13, 2025 lands at Moody Center in Austin, Texas, with December 15, 2025 turning up the heat inside Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The bands’ production teams will use venue rooftops for external cold spark cannons as crowd exit signatures, something typically done for outdoor stadiums, not enclosed downtown arenas.
Mid-tour intensity peaks December 18, 2025 at United Center in Chicago, Illinois, where Disturbed boasts one of its loudest hometown followings, followed by December 20, 2025 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan. December 22, 2025 marks a Kansas City invasion at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, where Slipknot historically pulls unforgettable pits. The bands have emphasized that venue choice wasn’t random—tour stops were selected based on structural capacity for heavy fire-integrated staging.
The tour shifts to the East Coast December 26, 2025 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where both acts have promised a special recording night for a future live release. December 28, 2025 follows at CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, leading into December 30, 2025 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. Every venue along the run has been issued non-standard fire marshal coordination meetings well in advance due to expanding indoor flame permissions.
The international leg begins immediately after New Year’s, launching January 4, 2026 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada, followed by January 7, 2026 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. January 10, 2026 crosses into Europe at O2 Arena in London, England, while January 14, 2026 lands in Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany. January 17, 2026 storms Accor Arena in Paris, France, proving this is not a staggered tag-along world run, but a continuation built to hit international markets with equal brutality.
Fans who attended summer shows in 2025 will notice a distinct difference in setlist philosophy. Slipknot’s 2025 arena performances leaned into evolving arrangement shifts, while Disturbed focused on vocal-driven melodic anchors— but this co-headliner merges neither style into a middle ground. Instead, both bands are setting increased BPM thresholds for the shared nightly pacing. Tour rehearsals reportedly pushed stamina limits enough that medical staff will travel with expanded facilities for backstage support.
General admission configurations will allow expanded floor capacity in cities like Phoenix, Detroit, and Paris, while seated venues like MSG, Berlin, and London have removed lower bowl divider space to make room for stage motion clearance. Merchandise previews suggest limited commemorative city-etched steel plates, glow displacement masks, and exclusive physical tour-bundled USB live recordings for select shows. Early merch demand crashed Disturbed’s storefront twice in the day following announcement.
The collaborative tour represents a new era in shared metal touring philosophy— not rooted in crossover tracks, guest verses, or joint fan chants, but structural respect for two distinct machines operating at maximum power. If 2025 needed a final sound, this is it: distortion first, melody last, spectacle everywhere. There’s no negotiation left in the year—only aftershock.
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