Tomas "Tompa" Lindberg died on September 16th, 2025, at the age of 52, from complications of adenoid cystic carcinoma. Born in Gothenburg in October 1972, he began as Goatspell in GROTESQUE before founding AT THE GATES, whose 1995 album "Slaughter of the Soul" became the template for a generation of melodic death metal and, indirectly, for most of American metalcore. His voice was the opposite of the genre's low guttural default: a raw, high, furious rasp that carried every word, and he used it across an extraordinary number of projects — THE GREAT DECEIVER, LOCK UP, DISFEAR, SKITSYSTEM, NIGHTRAGE, THE LURKING FEAR — while teaching social studies between tours. Roadrunner once ranked him thirtieth among the greatest metal frontmen of all time. AT THE GATES had reformed in 2007 and were still recording when he died.
