‘You Inspired Us in Everything’

In a little over a month, At the Gates will release The Ghost of a Future Dead, their final album with vocalist Tomas Lindberg, who died of cancer last September. The band’s members have reflected on the journey taken to finish the album as Lindberg faced an uncertain future.

Anders and Jonas Björler, Adrian Erlandsson and Martin Larsson have shared a collective statement, which is both informative and emotional as we get closer to the April 14 release.

With music written as the end of 2023 approached, Lindberg received his diagnosis and the band moved ahead with plans to start recording in 2024, targeting February or March. As vocals are traditionally recorded after the music, Lindberg didn’t need to take part in these sessions as he worked to better his health.

Unfortunately, Lindberg was not able to return to the studio, leaving the band sifting through demo vocal recordings, which they found to be impressive takes. As work on The Ghost of a Future Dead continued, At the Gates remain in daily contact with Lindberg.

At the Gates, “The Fever Mask”

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After the record was done, the band waited as Lindberg carried on with treatment for adenoid cystic carcinoma. By the summer of 2025, however, the vocalist was receiving “around the clock” care and, on Sept. 16, he died “following complications related to his ongoing cancer treatment.”

At the Gates say this is an “extremely important” album for them.

“Tomas, We miss your smile, your warmth, your creativity, your compassion & your humor. You inspired us in everything; from picking up instruments and starting a band back in the day, getting us interested in all kinds of music, art and literature,” the band adds. “The world will never be the same. You are forever missed. This album is for you.”

Read the full statement below and learn more about The Ghost of a Future Dead further down the page.

At the Gates Reflect on The Ghost of a Future Dead + Tomas Lindberg

The recording of “The Ghost of a Future Dead”

In February 2024 we entered Fascination Street Studios with producer Jens Bogren where we recorded all the music between February and March.
Additional recording engineer: Alexander Backlund.

We had the album pretty much written by mid December 2023, when Tomas got the bad news.

We decided together with him that we probably should move ahead and record the music in February/March as planned and then record the vocals later in 2024.

As this plan never materialized, we went back to check the demo vocals he had been recording prior to the studio recording with Per Stålberg.

We were all very surprised by how good these takes were, especially Tomas himself.
While in Fascination Street Studios we kept Tomas in the loop every day sending pictures, videos and progress reports in order to give him something positive to focus on after the first surgery and recuperation period.The recording went very well and we all gave our 100 percent for this album.

We brought in Charlie Storm to do the album intro on The Fever Mask.

Fredrik Wallenberg did guest vocals on the track Det Oerhörda.

Jens started to mix the album it in the spring of 2024.

We finalized the track order/sequencing for the album and Tomas collaborated on the cover artwork with our friend Robert Samsonowitz.

The whole of 2024 and some months into 2025 became just a waiting game for Tomas to recuperate and get better. We continuously pushed the album forward trying to find a release date that would work.

In the first months of 2025 things actually looked a bit brighter, but in early May he went through a setback that he never recovered from.

In August we felt the time was right to publish the news regarding his situation.

This is an extremely important album for us all.

We have poured our hearts into it.

Hope you will like it too.

Tomas, We miss your smile, your warmth, your creativity, your compassion & your humor. You inspired us in everything; from picking up instruments and starting a band back in the day, getting us interested in all kinds of music, art and literature.

The world will never be the same.
You are forever missed. This album is for you.

At the Gates, The Ghost of a Future Dead Album Art + Track Listing

“In accordance with Tomas’ wishes – including the album title, sound mix, track order, artwork, and overall presentation – ‘The Ghost of a Future Dead’ remains true to form. It combines the ferocious energy and hard-hitting powerful melodies that is the essence of At The Gates. This album is Tomas’ legacy,” At the Gates state.

The Ghost of a Future Dead comes out on April 24 on Century Media. Get your copy at the At the Gates website.

See the album art and track listing below.

1. “The Fever Mask”
2. “The Dissonant Void”
3. “Det Oerhörda”
4. “A Ritual of Waste”
5. “In Dark Distortion”
6. “Of Interstellar Death”
7. “Tomb of Heaven”
8. “Parasitical Hive”
9. “The Unfathomable”
10. “The Phantom Gospel”
11. “Förgängligheten”
12. “Black Hole Emission”

See At the Gates in our list of the best death metal album of each year since 1985.