By Matthew Powers

At The Gates are a pillar of the Gothenburg, Sweden melodic death metal movement. To say that they are important to metal history would be putting it lightly. They’re not a band that frequently drops new material either, though have been on a great streak since 2014’s At War With Reality. After the release of 2021’s The Nightmare of Being, we didn’t hear from the band much. And as of today, August 15th 2025, we now know why. 

Taking to social media, vocalist Tomas Lindberg wrote that he has been battling Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, an oral cancer, since he was diagnosed in December 2023. Lindberg had to undergo a surgery that removed the roof of his mouth. That’s a difficult series of events. But somehow, the night before starting the surgery, Lindberg was able to lay down all of the vocals for a new At The Gates record before the instrumentals had been recorded. As the statement noted, this is not typical of how the band records their albums and Tomas was looking to get ahead of any further difficulties. 2 months of radiation therapy followed along with a lengthy recovery period. I’d be lying if I said the detailing of these events didn’t leave me in awe. 

Tomas then jumps ahead to the beginning of 2025 and reveals that the doctors have found that some of the cancer still remains and is inaccessible by surgery or radiation. He notes that he isn’t sure what happens next, but is expecting that a form of chemotherapy will be necessary to keep the cancer in check. It is with this news that Tomas and the band are revealing that they feel now is the proper time to release the new album, which is described as a return to the band’s roots, a mix between Slaughter of The Soul and At War With Reality. Notably, this new album will be the first time lead guitarist Anders has written with At The Gates since At War With Reality. 

While we are certainly excited at the prospect of new classic-sounding At The Gates, we are wishing Tomas Lindberg and the At The Gates camp well and hope for his full recovery. There’s no way this was easy news to share and, honestly, they didn’t owe us anything. 

Below, you can find the full statements from the band and Tomas Lindberg. In the meantime, throw on Blinded By Fear and headbang in support of a legendary metal figure’s recovery. 

“We want to take a moment to update you on what’s been happening with At the Gates, and to do so, we need to take you back about a year and a half.

Below, you’ll find a message from Tomas, written this past March 2025, where he reflects on the past 15 months and the reasons for the radio silence.

However, in early May, Tomas experienced a health setback. Since then, he has been hospitalised and has been receiving dedicated care in a specialized ward where he is being closely monitored around the clock.

While this is a challenging time, we’re staying positive but, even in a best-case-scenario we know the recovery will take a long time.

We kindly ask that you respect Tomas’ and his family’s privacy during this period.

We know how much the band and the music mean to him — Tomas is incredibly proud of the new At the Gates album we’ve been working on, and we will try to get you more details on this upcoming release very soon.

Thank you for your ongoing support, patience, and understanding.

At the Gates

August 15, 2025

Tomas:

“Hello everyone. I guess some of you may have been wondering why it has been so silent on the At the Gates front lately.

Well, in December 2023, I was diagnosed with Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (a cancer in the mouth and pallet) and have since then gone through a lot, it has been a very tough year.

First there was a major surgery, where they took away a big part of the roof of the mouth. This was followed by radiation therapy for two months,

and eversince it has been a long hard path towards recovery. 

Now, in the beginning of 2025, they have found some remains of the cancer, and it is inaccessible by surgery or radiation.

So, we will see what the next step is, but probably some form of chemo therapy, to keep the cancer in check. 

Luckily, we recorded vocals for the demos for the new album before all of this happened. The last version of the vocals, the ones that will end up on the album, were recorded in ONE day, mostly one takes, the DAY before the surgery, just to make sure we HAD the album, so to speak. So the vocals were actually recorded BEFORE the rest of the album…. a bit different, but it felt good to have it done. 

We have now decided to not wait any longer to release this new album. We had first planned to wait with the release until we knew if/when I would be able to sing again, and we were able to support the release with shows. 

Now when everything about the future is a bit more unsure it feels good to deliver this album.

It is an album that we all are very proud of, and it’s the first time in 10 years that Jonas and I have worked together with Anders writing an albums’ worth of music.

It is a bit more of a return to the “roots”, probably best described as a mix between the two last albums we did with Anders (Slaughter of the Soul and At War with Reality). 

Hope you all will enjoy it! 

Please respect that we don’t want to make a big thing about all this, and that I won’t be answering interviews concerning the cancer, the treatment or the recovery. We just wanted this to be out in the open, as we wanted to explain to our fans why we have been quiet for such a long time.

I hope you all are well. Take care of yourself, your loved ones and the time you have on this earth. 

Tomas Lindberg / Gothenburg / March 2025”