Written By Caine Blackthorn
New Orleans metal wrecking crew BRAT are taking Manslayer on the road.
The BRAT 2026 tour will bring the band across the eastern United States this fall for a newly announced headlining run with U.S. Bastards, beginning September 29 in Atlanta and wrapping October 9 in Washington, D.C.
The dates arrive just four days after BRAT release their sophomore album Manslayer on September 25 via Prosthetic Records, meaning fans on the run will be among the first to experience the band’s new era where it was presumably designed to do the most damage: onstage.
BRAT have promised exactly that, teasing both a new era and a new stage show as they prepare to unleash Manslayer live.
BRAT 2026 Tour Launches Days After Manslayer
Timing is everything. Rather than releasing Manslayer and politely waiting for everybody to digest it, BRAT will give listeners approximately one long weekend before kicking open the doors of Atlanta’s Masquerade on September 29.
From there, the BRAT 2026 tour moves through North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania before heading farther north through New York and New England. The 10-show run concludes October 9 at Comet Ping Pong in Washington, D.C.
U.S. Bastards will provide support throughout the headlining dates.
Before that run even begins, however, BRAT already have a busy September ahead of them. The band will play dates alongside GWAR and Weedeater in Davenport, Grand Rapids, Memphis and Baton Rouge, effectively turning the arrival of Manslayer into one prolonged stretch of roadwork.
There are worse ways to introduce a new record.
Manslayer Pushes BRAT Into Darker Territory
Manslayer follows BRAT’s 2024 debut Social Grace, but the New Orleans band aren’t simply repeating themselves.
The 17-track sophomore album was recorded at Bricktop Recording in Chicago and produced, engineered and mixed by Weekend Nachos’ Andy Nelson, with Brad Boatright handling mastering.
Musically, the record continues BRAT’s collision of death metal, thrash and hardcore while pushing the band’s deliberately exaggerated aesthetic somewhere darker and more ferocious.
Vocalist Liz Selfish also took over lyric writing for the album, finding an unusual source of inspiration for extreme metal: country songs about women getting revenge.
Songs including The Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl,” Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” and Miranda Lambert’s “Gunpowder & Lead” helped inspire the record’s perspective, flipping a familiar extreme-metal trope by putting women in control of the violence rather than permanently assigning them the role of victim.
That idea runs straight through Manslayer. Even the song titles read like evidence bags.
“Aileen Wuornos.” “Speculum Bleed.” “Trophy Hunting.” “Femicidal Vengeance.” “Spit On His Grave.” “Ways To Kill Your Husband.” Subtle album this is not.
BRAT Bring Trophy Hunting Onto the Road
BRAT recently offered another preview of Manslayer with “Trophy Hunting,” released August 18.
Selfish described the song as a story about older men seeking younger trophy wives they believe they can control, only for that power dynamic to eventually explode in the other direction.
It follows the album’s earlier title-track preview, “Manslayer (Hell Hath No Fury),” establishing a fairly clear picture of the blood-soaked world BRAT are constructing around album number two.
The BRAT 2026 tour now gives the band an opportunity to transform that world into a live production.
The band’s identity has never stopped at the edge of the music. The bright colors, hyper-feminine imagery, humor and self-described “bimboviolence” aesthetic have always existed in deliberate collision with the sheer ugliness of the sound underneath.
With Manslayer, that contrast appears to be getting bloodier.And apparently it now comes with a new stage show.
BRAT have also announced a 10-date U.S. headlining tour in support of the album with U.S. Bastards. The run will begin September 29th in Atlanta, GA, immediately following the band’s dates with GWAR and Weedeater, and conclude October 9th in Washington, DC.
08/28 Shreveport, LA @ Bears
08/29 San Antonio, TX @ Vibes Underground
08/30 Austin, TX @ Chess Club
09/18 Sauget, IL @ Pop’s
09/19 Davenport, IA @ Capitol Theatre ^
09/20 Grand Rapids, MI @ Intersection ^
09/22 Memphis, TN @ Satellite Music Hall ^
09/23 Baton Rouge, LA @ Chelsea’s Live ^
09/29 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Altar) *
09/30 Durham, NC @ Stanczyks *
10/01 Richmond, VA @ Canal Club *
10/02 Harrisburg, PA @ Capitol City Music Hall *
10/03 Troy, NY @ No Fun *
10/04 Lowell, MA @ Taffeta *
10/06 Portland, ME @ Geno’s Rock Club *
10/07 Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom *
10/08 Brooklyn, NY @ Gold Sounds *
10/09 Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong *
* = Support from U.S. Bastards
^ = with Gwar and Weedeater
10/23–10/25 Copenhagen, DK @ CopenHell Cruise
10/28 Cardiff, UK @ Clwb Ifor Bach
10/29 Manchester, UK @ Star & Garter
10/30 Glasgow, UK @ Room 2
11/01 Birmingham, UK @ The Flapper
11/03 Bristol, UK @ The Crofters Rights
11/04 London, UK @ The Black Heart
11/06 Nuremberg, DE @ Löwensaal $
11/07 Flensburg, DE @ Roxy $
11/08 Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset $
11/09 Stockholm, SE @ Kollektivet Livet $
11/11 Oslo, NO @ Vulkan Arena $
11/13 Helsinki, FI @ Korjaamo $
11/14 Jyväskylä, FI @ Lutakko $
11/15 Tampere, FI @ Olympia $
11/17 Tallinn, EE @ Paavli Kultuurivabrik $
11/18 Riga, LV @ Spēlēt Concert Hall $
11/19 Vilnius, LT @ LOFTAS $
11/20 Kraków, PL @ Hype Park $
11/21 Jaroměř, CZ @ Nároďák Hudební Klub $
11/24 Bucharest, RO @ Bucharest $
11/26 Thessaloniki, GR @ WE $
11/27 Athens, GR @ Gagarin 205 $
11/28 Sofia, BG @ Studio Orfei $
11/29 Sofia, BG @ Orfey Music Club $
12/01 Ljubljana, SI @ Ljubljana $
12/02 Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv Club $
12/03 Aarau, CH @ KIFF $
12/04 Lindau, DE @ Club Vaudeville $
12/06 Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg $
$ = with Napalm Death, Master and Goatburner
About The Author
Caine Blackthorn writes music news, trending topics, commentary, and feature pieces for Metal Lair with a focus on the shifting culture surrounding rock and heavy metal. From rising ticket prices and touring collapse to legacy artists, industry absurdity, and the changing soul of live music, his work blends sharp observation with the grit, humor, and frustration of the scene itself. Whether covering modern chaos or metal history, Caine approaches heavy music as something lived through, not simply reported on.
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