Written by At The Gates drummer Adrian Erlandsson admits that until recently he had a “hard time” listening to the Gothenburg death metal band’s new album The Ghost Of A Future Dead, due to the cancer battle and later death of frontman Tomas Lindberg.
Talking to Metal Hammer, the 55-year-old says that he put off listening to the album until shortly before Lindberg’s passing at the age of 52 last September, despite it having been fully recorded more than a year before.
“I can’t actually speak about the lyrics, to be honest, [because] I haven’t read the lyrics,” Erlandsson tells us. “With all the stuff surrounding this album with [Lindberg’s] illness and then eventually passing, for a long time, I had a hard time listening to it. It was just recently, since just before he passed, that I started to listen to it again.”
Despite the emotional journey he’s been on with the material, the drummer adds that he’s “looking forward” to getting the album and being able to listen to it while reading Lindberg’s lyrics.
“As far as the lyrics go, I always enjoy, when I get the album, to sit down with the lyrics and listen,” he continues. “You make an opinion about what you think he’s singing when you just listen to it without the lyric sheet, and then you see the lyrics [and go], ‘Oh, that’s what he’s singing!’ That’s cool.”
Lindberg, who co-founded At The Gates in 1990, was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer of the mouth and pallet, in December 2023 and started treatment in early 2024, but fans weren’t informed about his condition until August 2025. He underwent surgery and initially beat the disease, before it came back in 2025. He returned to hospital and, following complications in his recovery, died on September 16.
A wave of tributes from fans and peers followed the news of the singer’s death. His bandmates issued a statement remembering him as a “true friend, both compassionate and sympathetic”. Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt said “as a frontman… he was awesome, plain and simple” and “intellectually, he seemed to be a step above and beyond your generic metal musician”. Trivium’s Matt Heafy called him “one of the most important singers/screamers of any metal band”.
The Ghost Of A Future Dead comes out on Friday, April 24, via Century Media. Lindberg’s vocal takes on the album were taken from demos he recorded shortly before his 2024 cancer surgery, while the music was recorded later that year. The singer came up with the album’s title following the start of his treatment and approved many of the details, including the tracklisting and artwork, before his death.
The future of At The Gates are currently unclear. No replacement for Lindberg has been announced, but during a recent interview, bassist Jonas Björler didn’t rule out putting together tribute shows to their late singer.
“We have’’t really discussed those things because we’re going to release the album first, and then we’ll see,” he told Chaoszine. “Maybe some shows to celebrate him or something, but we are not sure about anything right now.”
Read the full interview with Erlandsson, plus bassist Jonas and guitarist Anders Björler, in an upcoming issue of Metal Hammer. Our current issue, featuring Poppy on the cover, can be ordered now and delivered dircetly to your door.
