AT THE GATES Frontman Promises 'Some Surprises' On Upcoming Album

Metal Wani's editor in chief Owais "Vitek" Nabi had a chat with AT THE GATES and THE LURKING FEAR frontman Tomas Lindberg. You can now listen to the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the current status of AT THE GATES:

Tomas: "We are in the writing process for the next record. It's going really well. [We are] very focused, very fired up, very inspired and… Yeah, it's going really well, I have to say. It's actually going a bit faster than I thought it was gonna be, and [there's] good flow.

"I guess maybe, for myself, going straight from the creative side of THE LURKING FEAR straight into AT THE GATES, maybe I didn't have the time to go down, so I just continued the creativity. So [I'm] a little bit on a roll, maybe."

On what it has been like writing new AT THE GATES material without guitarist Anders Björler, who left the band earlier this year:

Tomas: "We are all very eager to get this done. The one that has stepped up so far is, of course, Jonas [Björler, bass], who wrote about forty percent of both [2014's comeback album] 'At War With Reality' and [1995's] 'Slaughter Of The Soul', so he stepped in as the main songwriter now, and the stuff that he's put on the table so far is amazing, basically. It really captures exactly the essence of what AT THE GATES is. I mean, 'At War With Reality' was a good album for us, a strong album, but I think this one is more focused on just being us."

On the musical direction of the new AT THE GATES material:

Tomas: "There's been a lot of discussions, and, as I said, a very creative, inspired atmosphere right now. I would say that we are, again, in a sense, as with 'At War With Reality', trying to really grasp what AT THE GATES is. Maybe a little bit more again even further back to the roots a little bit to see what aspects of AT THE GATES we could put in the AT THE GATES of today and make it a whole record, so to say, to present as we are now. But I think there will be some surprises for people in a very good way. So far it's a very coherent, very strong album, [with] very strong songs."

"At War With Reality" was released on October 28, 2014 (one day earlier internationally) via Century Media. The CD, which sold 7,700 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 53 on The Billboard 200 chart, was recorded at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg and was mixed at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden with Jens Bogren (OPETH, KATATONIA, SOILWORK, PARADISE LOST, KREATOR).

AT THE GATES completed a short U.S. tour after its appearance on the 2016 edition of the 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise. The trek also featured THE HAUNTED and DECAPITATED (direct support) and HARMS WAY.