Tomas Lindberg, the lead singer of the Swedish demise metallic band On the Gates, died “this morning following problems associated to his ongoing most cancers remedy,” his bandmates wrote on social media. “You have been an inspiration to us all,” they added. “A real pal, each compassionate and sympathetic. You’ll at all times be remembered to your generosity and your inventive spirit.” Lindberg was 52 years outdated.
Born in Gothenburg, Sweden, Lindberg got here up within the metropolis’s metallic scene, buying and selling tapes with fellow youngsters and designing the emblem for Norwegian band Darkthrone. He adopted the pseudonym Goatspell upon becoming a member of his first band, Grotesque, who helped spearhead Gothenberg’s rising demise metallic scene within the late Eighties. He co-founded On the Gates in 1990, and the band’s 1992 debut, The Purple within the Sky Is Ours, turned a demise metallic landmark, twisting wiry melodies into the style’s spine of piston riffs and bludgeoning rhythms.
In 1995, the band’s fourth album in as a few years, Slaughter of the Soul, elevated On the Gates’ standing each at dwelling—alongside Stockholm compatriots like Entombed and Dismember—and internationally, the place followers have been drawn in by Lindberg’s surrealist, scream-along lyrics and the band’s labyrinthine songwriting. Adulation and affect ensued, however On the Gates’ whirlwind first section was coming to an finish. The band parted methods in 1996, primarily citing burnout, and Lindberg side-quested with an array of extreme-music voyagers together with Lock Up, Disfear, Skitsystem, and the Nice Deceiver.
On the Gates reunited for a tour in 2007 and embarked upon a second period as a studio band in 2014. They’ve since launched three albums: At Warfare With Actuality, To Drink From the Evening Itself, and The Nightmare of Being. Lindberg remained a pleasant presence within the heavy-music world and taught social research in a Gothenberg center college throughout respites from touring.
Final month, On the Gates and Lindberg instructed followers that the singer was identified, in December 2023, with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a uncommon most cancers that was detected in his mouth. Lindberg stated he underwent surgical procedure to take away “a giant a part of the roof of the mouth” and likewise had two months of radiation remedy, however stays of the most cancers have been discovered early this yr. A day earlier than entering into for surgical procedure, he recorded all of the vocals for a brand new On the Gates album, the assertion famous.
