Tag: Tomas Lindberg

At The Gates – The Fever Mask

On By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week1 Comment

We now embark on an occasion both triumphant and sad, as we have the first single from the upcoming At The Gates album. The song is called The Fever Mask and it hails from the album The Ghost of a Future Dead. The album releases on April 24. It marks the eighth studio album from At The Gates.

This song and album arrive on a tragic note, as singer Tomas Lindberg died in September 2025. He recorded his vocals for this record early on in late 2023 or early ’24, just before starting treatment for a rare form of cancer in his mouth that would require surgery on his jaw. His and At The Gates’ plans were to wait out Lindberg’s treatment and see if he would be able to return to performing, but sadly it was not to be.

In far less tragic news, the album also marks the recording return to the band of guitarist Anders Björler, a founding member who left in 2017 and returned in 2022.

The Fever Mask is a brief track, coming in at a hair over three minutes. A sort of music video was made for the song, it features mostly still photos of the band and pays special attention to the departed Lindberg. This does sound like a “right down the middle,” on the rails At The Gates song. The group had gone in some experimental directions on their prior two albums but have stated that the new album fits sonically with their immortal Slaughter of the Soul record and the reunion album At War With Reality.

Beyond the upcoming album release, we don’t know much about the future of At The Gates. Bassist Jonas Björler (twin brother of Anders) stated in an interview with Chaoszine (transcribed in part here on Blabbermouth.net), the band may do some shows to celebrate the life of Tomas Lindberg, but they are unsure of their path forward at this time.

At The Gates are one of my favorite bands and one of a very few I pre-order upon first offering without any hesitation, and it’s not like I needed any further prompting with the heavy air surrounding this release. With the way The Fever Mask sounds, I have no doubt this album will fit just fine alongside the other titans of metal found within the At The Gates discography, and that this final testament of Tomas Lindberg will serve his legacy well.

Tomas Lindberg 1972 – 2025

On By bigbadburchIn News4 Comments

Today’s news is a tragic update to revelations we were privy to last month, when At The Gates announced they were preparing a new album and that singer Tomas Lindberg had a rare form of cancer. Sadly, that cancer has claimed Tomas’ life. Tomas was 52 years old.

Lindberg was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in October 1972. He would get started in music in the late 1980’s and joined up with the band Grotesque. A bit later Grotesque disbanded and Lindberg teamed up with several others to form At The Gates. From 1992 through 1995, At The Gates released four albums and became one of the beacons of melodic death metal, a movement largely centered on the Gothenburg area. Their fourth album Slaughter Of The Soul is hailed as one of the best albums of the 1990’s and was a massively influential album on heavy metal from the 2000’s, especially death metal and metalcore.

At The Gates unexpectedly broke up in 1996. After this, Lindberg spent the next decade-plus fronting a wide range of bands. He would join up with Disfear, The Crown, Nightrage, LockUp and many others. He also formed his own band The Great Deceiver, showcasing a unique blend of death metal and other styles. And he provided guest vocals to a dizzying array of bands all over the metal spectrum.

In 2008, At The Gates reunited for a series of tours. The band did not expand much upon the touring for several years, but then in 2014 they became a fully active band again and offered up At War With Reality, their first album in 19 years. At The Gates toured regularly and released two more albums in 2018 and 2021.

The information provided in Lindberg and At The Gates’ statement last month outlines the final few years of Lindberg’s life. In 2023 he was diagnosed with a rare form of throat and mouth cancer, which required major surgery. In early 2025 some remnants of the cancer were found, requiring very sensitive treatment that left Lindberg isolated. While we don’t have any further details regarding that, Lindberg died on or around September 16th.

Lindberg’s death has hit the metal community hard. At The Gates are revered as one of the of pioneering forces of the heavy metal that came about in the 2000’s and basically saved the genre from the extinction that almost occurred during the late 1990’s. Lindberg was well-respected among metal fans and artists, as evidenced by his miles-long list of guest contributions and the wave of tributes that have flowed in since the news of his death.

For me, At The Gates has long been one of my favorite bands. I was entirely taken with the concept of melodic death metal and have been on board for over 30 years since I first heard them. Slaughter Of The Soul is one of my favorite albums of all-time and the entire discography is one I go back to with frequency. It took me forever to see At The Gates live, which finally happened in 2018. Seeing them live essentially crossed off the final name on my “concert bucket list.”

Tomas Lindberg’s death will be felt as we go forward, especially given the news that At The Gates do have one final album with his vocals nearly ready for release. Condolences to Tomas’ family, friends, bandmates and fans worldwide.