Tomas Lindberg, the legendary Swedish heavy metal vocalist best known as the frontman for At The Gates, has died. A message from the band confirms Lindberg, also known as Tompa and Goatspell, passed away today due to complications related to ongoing cancer treatment. He was 52.
As frontman of At The Gates, Tomas Lindberg pioneered the triumphant and cinematic strain of death metal that came to be known as the Gothenburg sound. At The Gates were a fiercely beloved underground institution, and their 1995 masterpiece Slaughter Of The Soul remains a beloved classic in the metal world. It was a huge deal when At The Gates reunited in 2008, and the music that they made after getting back together was great enough to hang with the records from their first incarnation. Lindberg also applied his titanic, elemental scream to truly great records from bands like Skitsystem and Disfear. On top of that, he was widely known as one of the most personable, generous figures in the world of heavy music. This one fucking sucks.
Tomas Lindberg comes from the Swedish city of Gothenburg. In the late '80s, he started out under the name Goatspell, singing for the band Grotesque. They broke up after a couple of years, and he formed At The Gates with some former Grotesque members in 1990. They signed to the British label Peaceville, and their debut album The Red In The Sky Is Ours came out in 1992. At The Gates burned brightly, and they cranked out three more albums in quick succession before breaking up in 1996. Slaughter Of The Soul, the last of those albums, is a canonical record, one of those things that you need to hear if you have the slightest bit of interest in the metal underground.
In 1994, Tomas Lindberg and his At The Gates bandmate Martin Larsson started the great crust-punk band Skitsystem, and Lindberg continued to sing and play guitar for them for a decade. Lindberg also joined the long-running Swedish D-beat titans Disfear in 2003, and he released two absolutely colossal albums of out-of-control metal-punk with them. Disfear's 2008 swan song Live The Storm is among my favorite records of this century. Lindberg sold me a T-shirt at a Disfear show when they were touring behind Live The Storm, even though I was short on cash. Lindberg sang for more bands, too, including the Great Deceiver, the Crown, Lock Up, and Nightrage.
In 2008, At The Gates got back together and played a bunch of huge festivals, and people were wildly excited to have them back. They released the triumphant reunion album At War With Reality in 2014, and they followed it with two more excellent records, 2018's To Drink From The Night Itself and 2021's The Nightmare Of Being. Last month, Tomas Lindberg revealed that he'd been battling an aggressive form of cancer called adenoid cystic carcinoma for a couple of years. He had much of the roof of his mouth removed, and he went through radiation treatment. In his note to fans, Lindberg said that he recorded most of the vocals for an upcoming At The Gates record the day before his mouth surgery, mostly in single takes, "just to make sure we HAD the album, so to speak."
Here's the statement from At The Gates:
Tomas passed away this morning following complications related to his ongoing cancer treatment.
Despite intensive medical efforts, his life could not be saved.Tomas - You were an inspiration to us all. A true friend, both compassionate & sympathetic. You will always be remembered for your generosity and your creative spirit.
You will be eternally missed.
Forever in our hearts.
Check out some of Lindberg's work below.
