At The Gates have released a complete animated film for The Ghost Of A Future Dead, the album that carries Tomas Lindberg‘s last recorded vocals.
Costin Chioreanu of Twilight 13 Media, who has worked with the band for years, painted, filmed, edited and produced the project, building a single visual narrative across the whole record. Videos for “The Dissonant Void” and “In Dark Distortion” appeared earlier in the campaign, the remaining songs and the full-length version are now available.
“This is by far the most intense project I’ve done, not only due the circumstances but also because the album is so intense and it requires an insane rhythm for the whole dynamic,” Chioreanu said. “It is also the first time that I am doing a full album art video and, honestly, I think it will remain singular of this kind in my career, as I’ve been over several of my limits with this one. But I am so happy that I could finish this monument for my friend Tomas and for his magical band, who will remain with my heart and my memory till the end of my time here and beyond.”
The album’s opening track, “The Fever Mask“, was previously released with a separate memorial video assembled by Patric Ullaeus of rEVOLVER, another long-standing collaborator.
The Ghost Of A Future Dead came out on April 24 through Century Media Records, the band’s eighth album. Jens Bogren recorded and mixed it at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, with Tony Lindgren mastering and artwork by Robert Samsonowitz.
In May it went to No. 1 on the official Swedish albums chart, the first time At The Gates have topped it in a career spanning more than three decades. It also reached No. 1 on the country’s physical, vinyl and hard rock charts.
Lindberg finished his vocals in January 2024, immediately before undergoing surgery.
“Tomas completed the last songs in January 2024, the day before he went into hospital,” guitarist Anders Björler said. “We started to record the album, his surgery went well and we were in contact the whole time when we were in the studio. He was very excited to hear everything. We hadn’t really talked about a blueprint for the album, but it was Tomas‘ idea, to do something more reminiscent of At War With Reality or Slaughter Of The Soul. It’s not that, but in some instances it comes close! We were very focused on doing a very hard album – that was Tomas‘ goal. It’s a hard-hitting album.”
The band completed the music while he was being treated, and held the release. He finalised the title, the mix, the running order and the artwork himself.
The record was not always called this. Its working title was The Dissonant Void, the song Chioreanu later animated first.
“The title reflects [Tomas‘] situation, that he might not survive the illness,” Björler said. “The working title was The Dissonant Void, but in the spring of 2024, we changed it to The Ghost Of A Future Dead. I don’t know if it was like a premonition of what was about to come or anything. But now it’s an eerie title, because he has passed. It makes the title even more real somehow.”
Björler has said the entire campaign around the album has been undertaken with one purpose. “I’m doing this for Tomas,” he said. “It’s very hard to talk about. I mean, talking to journalists is both very problematic and, at the same time, it’s almost like therapy because I noticed many of the journalists knew Tomas personally. I mean, I’ve been talking to journalists who just break down and cry.”
Lindberg was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare oral cancer, in December 2023. Surgery removed a large part of the roof of his mouth, and he underwent radiation treatment afterwards. Traces of the cancer were found again in early 2025, and a setback that May placed him in long-term care.
He died on September 16, 2025 at the age of 52.
The lineup on the album is the one that recorded Slaughter Of The Soul in 1995: Lindberg on vocals, Anders Björler and Martin Larsson on guitars, Jonas Björler on bass and Adrian Erlandsson on drums. Anders Björler had rejoined in 2022, having last appeared on an At The Gates record with At War With Reality in 2014.
The band’s music will be performed by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in December, in a series of concerts titled The Gothenburg Sound.
At The Gates songs will be arranged for orchestra alongside material by In Flames and Dark Tranquillity, the two other bands most associated with the scene the city gave its name to. The performances take place at the Gothenburg Concert Hall on December 3, 4 and 5.
