The circumstances of its creation make this a difficult album to process, let alone assess. Ever since Swedish death metal gods At The Gates surfaced on the early 90s tape-trading circuit, Tomas Lindberg was one of extreme metal’s most loved and respected frontmen. His out-of-control, edge-of-sanity rasp conveyed raw emotion like no other, providing a genuine streak of danger, derangement and disturbance in an era of 10-a-penny Cookie Monster garglers, forming a unique contrast with the high melodic precision of his bandmates.
It was a voice that paid no heed to the future; untrained and unrestrained, every line was projected with maximum force, conviction and commitment, as if every shriek might be his last. At the end of 2023, Tomas – known affectionately to his friends and fans (often the same thing) as Tompa – was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He recorded all of these vocals the day before undergoing mouth surgery, but the cancer spread, and, heartbreakingly, Tomas died last autumn. This time, these really are his last shrieks. This knowledge, combined with the devastating morbidity of the title (Tompa’s own choice), make The Ghost Of A Future Dead a pretty overwhelming experience.
