Swedish thrashers Methane are confirmed for Sabaton Open Air Festival 2020. Methane and promisses to add an extra heavy element to this years festival line-up. The band has just come home from a U.S. tour supporting its new single ‘Thin The Herd‘ the first single from Methane’s forth comming album “Kill It With Fire“.
Methane joins Sabaton, Equilibrium, Unleash the Archers, Burning Witches, Feedom Call, Van Canto, Amaranthe, Cryonic Temple and Tiamat. Sabaton Open Air is held in Sabaton’s hometown of Falun, Sweden August 5-9.
2019 was an epic year for us and Methane! We released Thin The Herd , the first single and music video off our upcomming album ‘Kill It With Fire‘. The single was released on Sweden’s Big Balls Productions. We also got to come meet alot of you guys on tour in Berlin, Estonia, Lativia , here at home in Sweden and an Amazing tour on the West Coast in the U.S. with Incarnit. Methane started a Metal Vlog on Youtube ( Check it out here) and have searched high and low for a solution to our very own Spinal Tap drummer situation. Big specail thanks to Juuso Laukanen (Intact) for destroying drum skins with us live and Jonas Arnberg (Fimbutyr) in the studio.
2020 is already getting exciting, we have plans for new releases and booking tours and festivals that we will announce very soon. We thank everyone of you who have supported us on social media, who have come to shows, shared our music, bought a t-shirt or just threw up your horns, we are truely greatful and wish everyone a Happy New Year , lets blow 2020 up!
Tim, Jimi and Markus have made thier own Top lists from 2019 with tour memories to share with you metalheads. We would love to hear your Methane memories from 2019 please give us a comment with a photo or memory we shared together.
Tim’ Best 10
Photo – Kim Sellstedt
Best drink – Redwine and Fireball We created an awesome drink on the boat to Estonia. We are still trying to come up with a name for it, but it definatly is a new Methane mainstay on our ferry rides across the Baltic sea.
Mosh Pit Of The Year We had some good pits but the The Girl mosh Pit om Halloween at the 5 Star Bar was priceless. A group of girls ran on to the floor while we were playing dressed up for Halloween, they were brutal AF, it was amazing.
Best discription of Methane While on tour in the U.S. , Sam from Big Balls Productions who had never met us asked the guys in Incarnit about what we were like. William Fossheim who was playing bass in Incarnit replied “Its like touring with pirates.” . I think that was a complement.
Coolest Castle – Rakvere Castle, Rakvere Estonia We get to sight see while we are out driving around looking for the next club. In Estonia we hit up 2 really cool castles a castle in Narva on the border of Russia and an amazing castles ruins in Rakvere. The gig in Rakvere at Kära Kants Rock Club was also an incredible night.
Dance moves of the year – Juuso’s Robot Dance Juuso was getting jiggy with it all year with his robot dance. He is a master of moves, he broke out the robot dance first at Blackland in Berlin and it followed us everywhere! In Riga, even a robot mosh pit broke out. Thrashtards for life!
Biggest Hole Visted– The Grand Canyon Like I said we do get see some awesome things on the road. Even some big holes in the ground, we saw Window Rock on the Navajo Rez, an old haunted cave in 2 guns Arizona but the biggest most impressive was ofcourse The Grand Canyon. I guess you can say Arizone is “Holy” .
Best gig food –Burritos in San Diego . Probably one of the most important things when we are out is getting something to eat. Some promoters really think of thier artists and feed us. Julie Knight Zucker from Knight Time Entertainment is one of those amazing music people. She hooked us up with some bad ass burritos in San Diego.
Latest After Party – Greeley Colorado. Well I’m not 100% if it was the latest but maybe more the strangest. We went back to Draghoria’s rehearsal studio after the gig with members for the band and Incarnit. Things got a little crazy to say the least.
Grumpiest On Tour – Dylan. Markus wasn’t able to follow us out the states on this last tour, but fortunately we got original founding member Dylan Campbell to jump in and play with us. He gets my grumpy award, because he wasn’t super happy when I would scream while he was sleeping.
Coldest Beer – Burning Run Fest Berlin. Not sure if the beer was cold or just because it was a warm outdoor fest. But good times were had and beer was involved with our brothers in Edge of Ever.
Jimi’s Top 10 of 2019
Srangest Gig – Los Angeles in Alley Studio
Funnest gig 2019 Blackland Berlin Germany Moxi Denver USA Kära kants Rakvere Estonia Rockbar Karlstad Sweden
Mosh pit of the year Moxi Denver 5 stat bar Los Angeles girl mosh Rockbar Karlstad
The grumpiest sound engineer Tucson
The drunkest boat trip The ferry Stockholm- Tallinn
Best promoter, food and love… Regena Dungan Srackangast of Decibel of Reign in Tucsin AZ.
Drink of the year Redwine – Fireball
The oh no I can’t follow you guys home I forgot my passport and I am stuck here award. Tim couldn’t leave Germany when he left is passport somewhere.
Markus’ Top Ten of 2019
10. Driving the car from Narva, Estiona having no idea how the speeding cameras were looking like. Got busted, however the ticket fee was not too bad, luckily.
9. Narva, Estonia as a city. Probably one of the stranges places I have been to on this planet. Estonia on one side of the river, Russia on the other side. Also, if there are 70 000 people living in Narva, where were they?
8. One of the best places we visited in 2019 was definitly Berlin. What a wonderful city. I would love to go back there again soon.
7. During the shooting of “Thin the Herd” I was so hungover. Worst shooting day ever, but the result was amazing.
6. The stage we played on at one of the shows in Berlin was slightly tilting towards my side, making it impossible to move without almost falling. Also, the feeling of everything on the stage would fall towards me due to the tilting. Scary stuff.
5. Moshpit in Karlstad. The moshpit that occured during our show in Karlstad, Sweden was absolutely nuts. The hade to clean in front of the stage after the show because there were so much beer and broken glass. That is how to have a thrash metal gig.
4. Old man mosh pit in Rakvere, Estonia. I’m not kidding when I say that there was a man, must have been over 50 or 60 years old having a fucking great show. He was moshpiting with himself for about 30 minutes. That made me so happy, and a little bit scared too.
3. When we played in our hometown and started the song “thin the herd” I have an important role in the intro. When i was starting to play it on the guitar the sound was gone. I was looking on my guitar and my ampifier but everything looked fine. After about 7 seconds (when the intro was totaly ruined), I saw that my tuning pedal was turned on, which makes the guitar muted. That was so embarrasing.
2. Live in Riga, Latvia. Tim did something so funny on stage that I started laughing loud. I could not stop. I was litterally louging for 4 minutes, non stop while trying not to screw up on guitar. Loved it.
1. Girl moshpit in the USA? I could not attend to that tour unfortunatelly. I saw a video when the band was playing in Los Angeles i think. I was wathcing the band playing, sounded good and everything semmed to be in order. Suddenly, the camera was turned away from the band and started filming the audience. There was I think 4 or five girls (cannot remeber exactly) that started a moshpit. I looked wuite violent too. They were not really dressed as “Metalheads” either. It all semmed so strange. But, I laughed so hard. I cannot think how the gyus felt when that happened, Must be no.1 strangest and best thing happend in 2019.
Groove metal band Methane has begun it’s fall tour for the bands new single ”Thin The Herd”, and has successfully completed the Northern European leg, they are now regrouping home in Sweden in preperation for a Southwestern U.S. run.
The band will be without guitarist Markus Grundström on this leg of the tour. ”Markus wants to be with us in the U.S., but right now due to some unforeseen circumstances he won’t be making the trip with us. He is really disapointed but he will back in the mix when we get home. But we have a great replacement for him.” says Methane singer Tim Scott.
Watch Methane’s new thrasher ‘Thin The Herd’ here on YouTube
Joining Methane on guitar will be original member and founder Dylan Campbell. Dylan has been absent from Methane for more than a year due to his Swedish residency permit being revoked, thus forcing Dylan to move back home to the United States. ” He (Campbell) has been an active member in the band including writing and recording, he knows all the songs and this is just an incredible twist of fate to be able play with him again! ” says Tim ” We are really excited.” Also joining the band will be drummer Peter Andersson,
Dylan Campbell
The U.S. Tour will go off ,with label mates Incarnit also from Sweden, on October 30 in Hollywood, CA and end on November 9, in Denver Co. See all tour dates below.
Last Friday we released Thin The Herd on Big Balls Productions. We are extreemly greatful for the amazing response the song is getting! Here are some brutal reviews the song is getting along with some METAL AF playlists. We thank everyone who has been sharing the song and adding to your playlists. If you find any we haven’t seen yet please let us know.
Ever Metal Playlists on YouTube and Spotify
This weekend we are celebrating the release with 2 gigs in Sweden as a start to our Thin The Herd Tour which will take us to Estonia, Latvia and The U.S. You can keep tabs and see some on the road videos on our YouTube Vlog.
RAGING REALITY RECATION VIDEO TO THIN THE HERD
For you guys who have been trying to follow our, real life Spinal Tap, drummer situation, We would like to present Peter Andersson from Bollnäs, Sweden. Peter has been reheasersing with us for awhile now and will be playing his first Methane gig tomorrow, Friday OCt. 4, at our release party in Borlänge, Sweden with INCARNIT. You can get a glimpse of him later today on our YouTube Vlog. while Juuso Laukanen wil be crushing live with us for our Baltic gigs. Tour Dates
Down The Front Review‘ guitars that chug harder than a sailor with his first beer on shore leave. ‘
Methane has confirmed tour dates in October and November on both sides of the Atlantic. The band will be kicking off a European leg in the Baltic region starting with a release party in hometown Borlange, Sweden continueing to Estonia and Riga in Latvia, as a warm to a North American tour with label mates Incarnit.
Methane will release it’s ‘Thin The Herd‘ single and music video on September 27 through Sweden’s Big Balls Productions. The release is the first from Methane since it’s debut album in 2017 ‘The Devil’s Own‘ , which was put out by Sony/Dark Star records.
Methane has built a reputation as a live band in the underground European metal scene playing with bands such as Nervosa , Warbringer and The Haunted. This is will be the second time the Swedish thrashers have been to the U.S., the first way back in 2014 when they did an East Coast mini tour that included The Rage of Armageddon Fest in Brooklyn NY. Methane is currently booking more dates in Europe for 2020
Thin The Herd Tour 2019 Europe 10/04 Borlänge Sweden w/Incarnit @House of Blues 10/05 Karlstad Sweden w/Incarnit @The Rock Bar 10/10 Narva Estonia w/Hellflower and Vinterfög @Art Club Ro-Ro 10/11 Rakvere Estonia w/Hellflower and Vinterfög @Kära Kants 10/12 Riga Latvia w/Hellflower and Terror Activator @Republika
U.S.A. 10/30 Hollywood CA w/Incarnit and Cleaver (CL) 10/31 Los Angeles CA w/Incarnit and Cleaver (CL) @5 Star Bar 11/01 San Diego CA w/Incarnit and Mind @The Bancroft 11/02 Tucson AZ w/ Incarnit and I Don’t Konform @House of Bards 11/06 Gallup NM w/Incarnit and I Don’t Konform @Wowie’s 11/07 Colorado Springs CO w/ Incarnit @Sunshine Studios 11/08 Greeley CO w/Incarnit and Draghoria @Moxi Theater 11/09 Denver CO w/Incarnit and Draghoria @Bar Bar
OFFICIAL TEASER FOR METHANE – THIN THE HERD
Watch Methane perform ‘Thin The Herd’ live at The Northern Blasphemy Fest in Stckholm Sweden
Official statement from Methane: Methane is excited to join forces with Swedish metal label Big Balls Productions for our upcomming release. Big Balls is a maverick metal label dedicated to breaking rules. Our next release, Thin The Herd, promises to be a brutal crusade of thrash metal that will take giant steps in the metal underground.
Methane guitarist Jimi Masterbo about the collaboration: ’I belive in the guys at Big Balls Productions, and know they are going help us tare it up with this release!’
”Thin the Herd” in some way take´s METHANE on to a new direction. It´s still thrash, and yes, you can indeed drink beers while listening to this new, groovy tune. METHANE fans will love this, and “Thin the Herd” will especially do itself justice live. That´s usually a hallmark for every good song ever made. Big Balls Productions is looking forward to be involved in the bright future of METHANE. ~ Big Balls Productions
It’s official! Methane will be releasing a new single and video for ‘ Thin The Herd’ . We have been teasing Thin the Herd with live videos for awhile now as we have added into our live set awhile back. Thin the Herd is a precurser to a new album to be released 2020 and marks a heavier, more honest sound that we have been looking for.
Thin the Herd will be released on Friday, September 27 through Sweden’s recusant Big Balls Productions. We are extreemely excited to unleash a new tougher , agressive song, it’s been way too long since we put something new out.
Markus and Jonas describe ‘Thin The Herd’
WARNING! Your minds are being controlled. The human race is infected. The plague is being spread in your social media feed. There is only one cure. No quarter will be given. It’s time to THIN THE HERD.
We plan to tour extensivly for this song while smithing new plans for releasing more music. We would like to extend a warm welcome to all of our friends and supporters to our release event at The House of Blues in Borlänge, Sweden on Friday October 4. We have invited Incarnit, an energetic hard hitting thrash band to share this night with us, It will be a rager of a party!
In October 2018 Olle Ekman left the band and we have been racing to find a new permanent drummer. Juuso Laukkanen from Estonian groove metalers Intact has been filling in for live duties. But Jonas Arnberg from Fimbultyr ,a Viking Blackmetal band from our area in Sweden, took over for studio details. Jonas not only plays the drums but recorded, mixed snd mastered the sessions at his studio , Sellnoise Studio.
Eka Saptura
The cover for Thin The Herd was created Indonesian metal artist Eka Saptura for Pzychoart ,who has done work for Suicidal Silence among others. Eka took our vision and nailed to the cross in almost no time.
The cover depicts the lyrical theme of he song blended with gut wrenching colors and crisp apocalyptic graphics giving us a haunting underground thrash metal feeling.
We are looking forward to seeing you guys out on the road this fall and next year.
See you in the pit ~ Tim, Jimi and Markus
Watch the live version of Methane’s Thin The Herd filmed at Northern Blasphemy Fest in Stockholm, Sweden October 13, 2018 (Olle’s Last gig)
Yes! We have been in the studio working on new material and are almost ready to release a brand new beast.
The band has been in Sellnoise Studio with Jonas Arnberg at the helm. Jonas has not only put down the drum tracks but also mixed and mastered our next release. Jonas got an awesome mix with a brutal, tight sound with a live feeling, he nailed that sound we have been out after for along time. Everything is pretty much done for these 3 face punching groove metal songs with titles of, Thin The Herd, A Blood Red Sky and Down in the Gutter. Jimi has shredded his solos and Tim has screamed his last scream. We are just putting the final touches on the masters.
Episode 2 of Methane’s Metal Vlog “Sellnoise Studio”
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and keep updated with our vlog
We will be releasing more info about what is comming out and where you can get it, in the next couple of weeks. The new material shows a clear progression and maturity in Methane’s music writing, mixing big fat grooves with furious thrash metal riffs at the same time keeping our Southern Metal attitude intact.
We can also let you know we are planning a Raging Release Party in our home town in Borlänge, Sweden and will be releasing some exciting tour news very soon as well. ~Tim, Jimi and Markus
Awhile ago I was asked by Finland’s KAAOS ZINE to name 5 albums that influenced me as a musician here is the article that was published April 4, 2018. To the original article
”When I was asked to write this piece about the top 5 albums that influenced me as a musician, I thought this will be an impossible task. There are thousands of albums from different genres of music which have had an impact on me personally. I have chosen here 5 landmarks ín an anthology, as landmarks through the twisted forest of my musical development.”
1. KISS – ”Dynasty”:
”I was around nine years old walking through a Sears Roebucks store in Grand Junction Colorado when the demons spoke to me for the first time. I saw these 4 evil clowns staring at me from the cover of Kiss’s hardrock disco album. They somehow called to my already awakening antisocial inner core. My parents were hippies and very involved themselves in music. I grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkle and all the other hippie cult folk music of their time. So it wasn’t hard to convince them to let me take these monsters home with me. ”Dynasty” was my very first cassette tape that I ever owned. I listened to it non stop memorizing the lyrics and rhythms. I don’t listen to this album anymore but still can remember the songs from top to bottom.”
2. Mötley Crue – ”Shout At The Devil”
”From ages 9–13 I went through many different metamorphosis listening to all types of music even the tripe sold to the mindless herd over the radio. But living then in Northern California heavy metal was becoming a big thing along with MTV, which appealed to those inner demons I carried in my backpack, my monsters. I would go to the record store and sort through the albums spending my weekly allowance on new sounds that might disturb the hippies. I had AC/DC, Scorpions, Def leppard and ”SHOUT AT THE DEVIL”. It wasn’t really the music itself that Motley Crue made but it was again the monsters calling to me. A bad ass image, a fuck you lifestyle, I would suffer through hours of Cindy Lauper videos just for the chance to be hypnotised by a Crue video. My friends and I would trek to the local supermarket and buy metal magazines which we would study from cover to cover. It was in one of these articles I read of Nikki Sixx, a tour bus and a Jack Daniel’s bottle when I decided I needed to play bass, heavy metal musicians got the chicks, and as a hyper hormonal teenager, I wanted chicks too!”
photo by Helinä Lehtinen
3. Possessed – ”7 Churches”
”Now had my first weapon, a 1983 Ibanez X-series Destroyer 4 string model. I practiced the same blues scale daily to my neighbors dismay. The Bay Area thrash metal scene was spawning then, in Northern California you either listened to thrash or damned as a poser and traitor to mankind.The first genres in metal were taking form. The aggression and the dirty unmelodic sounds ( the monsters) possessed me all the way to the bone. Finally something, the hippies who tried to tell me how to live, wouldn’t understand. I rattled my god damn head to Exodus, Slayer, Venom, Metallica, Destruction the list is endless. I even got to witness many of these bands live in small clubs in San Francisco. I had a hunger for the extreme, it quenched the chill in my soul. Possessed – 7 Churches, pushed those limits I was seeking and helped push me over the edge into death metal with its combination of the non-melodic and the obscene.”
4. Revenant – ”Prophecies Of A Dying World”
”In my late teens, I was moved away from the garage band in Eureka California to the suburbs of New York City in New Jersey. I quickly set my fangs into some local guys and started a thrash band called Parasyte. The New York scene was a gathering place for pushing boundaries, with NYHC, thrash and an emerging beast called death metal. Not long after I met John McEntee and Henry Veggian from the band Revenant. They were looking for a bassist. At the time I was reading Crowley and immersing myself in the occult constantly searching for something more something darker. I went to a Revenant rehearsal and was consumed by its technicality and its heavy obscurity. When they asked me to join the band I couldn’t resist. Revenantwas responsible for me going over the edge in my music addiction and a turning point where music became more than a hobby. I had played on many demos before with punk and thrash bands, but Revenant was a new dimension. We were soon after signed to a little underground record label from Germany called Nuclear Blast. We traded gigs with other obscure underground bands like Cannibal Corpse and Immolation to later tour with rising bands like Morbid Angel and Napalm Death. Death metal was being conceived and the New York scene was a main headquarters for the brutality.”
5. Machine Head – ”Burn My Eyes”
”After the demise of Revenant I found my way to South Florida. The New York scene was slowly giving up the ghost, but many of its soldiers were moving near Morris Sound Studios and the Florida metal scene. I was asked to play in a side project with Rob Barret (Cannibal Corpse) and Phil Fasciana (Malevolent Creation) called HatePlow . I recorded an the debut album with HP entitled ”Everybody Dies” (Arctic / Pavement Records) before leaving the band. During that time I was listening to Alice and Chains , one of my all time favorite bands, and exposed to lots of other music of that epoch such as Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids who practiced next door to us. Machine Head was a band that reminded me of ghosts in California. Maybe I was getting tired already then of blast beats or maybe it was just nostalgia or maybe I had pissed enough people off that my monsters were appeased. But groove metal, a close kin to thrash fed my need for metal and Old had all the elements. After a long time away from music I moved to Sweden. Here I have played in a few death metal bands, Volturyon (Vicisolem) and Margrave(Bifrost Records), but the echoes of groove and thrash were still in my backbone. Methane was created in 2013 to feed the beast always beckoning me to play.”
Markus Grundstrom named as new guitarist in Methane.
For the last year and a half Methane has been without original guitarist and founding member Dylan Campbell. Cryonic Temple guitarist Markus Grunstrom has been filling in for Dylan live and will now be taking over recording duties as well as becoming a permanent fixture in Methane.
In late 2017, Campbell was informed by the Swedish government that his petition for residency was denied and after months of redtape and bureaucracy Dylan moved back to the United States.
Markus Grundstrom
“Grunie” has been playing for 15 years. His go to axe is his ESP Eclipse . In his spare time, Markus referees soccor and has a dog named Loppan.
” Dylan will always be a part of this band, we have not kicked him out and he has not quit, but Methane will be continuing with Markus on guitar now that Dylan is stuck back in the States. Right now we are in the recording process as well as rehearsing for upcomming tours this fall and next year, we feel it was important that Markus knows how invaluable he is to the band.” – Tim Scott singer / bassist in Methane.
Watch a live clip of Markus playing new song “Thin The Herd” live with Methane in Stockholm Sweden
