The band kicks off the first of two European runs February 4 at Ice Hall in Helsinki, Finland, hitting Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Holland and Belgium before hooking up with Job For a Cowboy and Evile February 17 at the University of East Anglia in Norwich for the U.K. leg of Gigantour.

Other U.K. stops include Rock City in Nottingham (February 18), Carling Academy Newcastle (February 20), and Carling Academy Brixton in London (February 24).

Megadeth’s second set of European dates starts February 26 at Elysee Monmarte in Paris and wraps March 11 at Hogenottenhalle in Frankfurt, Germany, with stops in Spain, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland, followed by a detour to Bangalore, India for the Rock in India Festival March 14.

The North American leg of Gigantour, with Scandinavian death-metal band In Flames, Finland’s Children Of Bodom, Job For a Cowboy and High On Fire rounding out the lineup, gets rolling April 12 at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver and runs through late May.

Highlights include stops at Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston (April 17), Tabernacle in Atlanta (April 20), Bell Centre in Montreal (April 29), the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago (May 6), P.N.E. Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver (May 16), Cox Arena in San Diego (May 20) and Mesa Amphitheatre in Arizona (May 22).

Tickets and VIP packages – which include meet & greets, tour laminates, guitar picks and more – are available at Gigantour.com, Megadeth.com and Ticketmaster.com.

In other Megadeth news, the group has officially welcomed new guitarist Chris Broderick (Nevermore, Jag Panzer) to the band after parting ways with Glen Drover. Frontman Dave Mustaine has a message for fans upset with the departure.

“I’ve noticed [on the internet] that people are pissed at me over the way things were handled with Glen quitting the group,” he said. “but they’re gonna be pissed even more when they hear how fierce we are with Chris! Megadeth is playing at a new level.”

Broderick will make his live debut with Megadeth in when the band kicks off its European tour in Finland.

Here’s a clip of the guitarist showing off his chops on a 5-octave two-handed tapping arpeggio riff, one of three examples he did for Guitar World’s “Betcha can’t play this” column.