According to Stereogum.com, Tomas Lindberg, the Swedish heavy metal vocalist for At The Gates has died. A message from the band confirms Lindberg, also known as Tompa and Goatspell, passed away today due to complications related to ongoing cancer treatment. He was 52 years old.

Lindberg pioneered the triumphant and cinematic strain of death metal that came to be known as the Gothenburg sound. At The Gates were a fiercely beloved underground institution and their 1995 album, Slaughter Of The Soul, remains as a beloved classic in the metal world.

It was a huge deal when At The Gates reunited in 2008 and the music that they made after getting back together was good enough to hang with the records from their first incarnation. Lindberg also applied his titanic and elemental scream to great records from the bands Skitsystem and Disfear. Also the artist was widely known as one of the most personable and generous figures in the world of heavy music.

Lindberg comes from the Swedish city of Gothenburg and in the late ’80s, he started out under the name Goatspell and started to sing for the band Grotesque. They broke up after a couple of years and  the vocalist formed At The Gates with some former Grotesque members in 1990. The band signed to the British label Peaceville and their debut album, The Red In The Sky Is Ours, came out in 1992.

At The Gates burned brightly and they cranked out three more albums in quick succession before breaking up in 1996. Slaughter Of The Soul, the last of those albums, is a canonical record and one of those things that people need to hear if they have the slightest bit of interest in the metal underground.

Photo Credit: Ekaterina Gorbacheva