Swedish melodeath icons At the Gates have announced that they will soon be releasing a new album, but sadly also revealed that vocalist Tomas Lindberg has been hospitalized since May, and that he had been diagnosed with mouth cancer in late 2023.
The news was delivered through At the Gates’ Facebook page earlier today (August 15th), with a group statement noting that the band had been “radio silent” over the past several months as Lindberg had been dealing with his health issues.
The vocalist received a diagnosis of Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma in December 2023, which led to a major surgery that removed a large portion of the roof of Lindberg’s mouth. He had also undergone radiation treatment and had been on a path to recovery, but then doctors found traces of the cancer in early 2025. Most recently, an undetermined “setback” in May placed Lindberg into longterm care.
“In early May, Tomas experienced a health setback. Since then, he has been hospitalized and has been receiving dedicated care in a specialized ward where he is being closely monitored around the clock,” the group wrote. “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.”
The band also released a statement Lindberg had written in March of this year, where he detailed his health struggles but also shared info on the as-yet untitled next At the Gates album, which they plan to release ASAP. They had begun making the record ahead of his cancer diagnosis, and wrapped up vocals just before his mouth surgery.
“Luckily, we recorded vocals for the demos for the new album before all of this happened,” Lindberg confirmed in his statement. “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).
While details are pending, today’s statement adds: “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.”
The upcoming At the Gates album will be the act’s first full-length release since 2021’s The Nightmare of Being. Founding lead guitarist Anders Björler rejoined the band the following year.