At The Gates' New Album Has Been Kicking Around in Their Heads for 19 Years

Nearly two decades have passed since melodic death metal trailblazers At The Gates released Slaughter of the Soul. With the continuing reunion trend of bands from all manner of genre, the cynicism of fans and critics has nearly reached critical mass thanks to the uncertainty of exactly what a band we’ve loved/hated can offer in the wake of rapid change and listener apathy. There’s little in the way of ambiguity regarding At The Gates’ influence on heavy metal, and much like their UK metal brethren, Carcass, the band left fans, haters, and critics alike in perpetual limbo in the mid-90s just as nü-metal began its reign over the record store and radio, for better or for worse.

Now in the post-[enter groundbreaking album of choice here] age of metal, At The Gates will release their fifth full-length, At War With Reality to an entirely new but no less eager fanbase alongside those of us who balance skepticism with the hopeful anticipation that drew us to this music in the first place. If the recent spate of successes (among the admitted failures) in band reunions has taught us anything, though, it’s that time is only a creative impediment when a band allows it to be. With Gorguts and Carcass essentially laying waste to their doubters in 2013, there’s more than a fair share of hope that next month will see At The Gates simply let the riffs erase both time and speculation with a vengeance.

I sat down with founding members Tomas “Tompa” Lindberg (vocals), Jonas Björler (bass), and Anders Björler (guitars) to talk about the band’s history, what brought them to heavy music, and what lies ahead for listeners in the coming months.

What brought At The Gates together initially, and what brought each of you guys individually to the point where you knew you had to create this music?
Tomas: I would say we were all kind of involved in the death metal underground individually before the inception. I had a band before called Grotesque, and, I mean, Jonas and I became close friends during that band, so it just made sense to do something new together.

Anders: Yeah, for me and Jonas, it was like when we grew up we listened to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and then progressed to Metallica then Slayer, then we met Tomas, and it was a natural progression to death metal, and by listening to death metal and these old bands, you realized that this was something that you could pull off yourself. That was the triggering factor for us to start playing an instrument. Seeing those different bands from all over the world, and of course the fact that Tomas already had his own band.

Was there a specific band for you guys in your youth that provided that sort of initial creative spark?
Jonas: It started off in maybe like ’87 when you heard Slayer stuff and maybe more heavy stuff. You got really into that kind of music, and also the underground scene. You were kind of lured into that world because it was a totally new world for us with the tape trading and…

Anders: I think the bands everybody liked were Death, Morbid Angel, maybe Autopsy. The pioneering bands.

Tomas: It’s like Jonas said about the underground scene and how it felt like a new world. When you’re 15 or 16, that’s what you’re searching for, right?

Jonas: It really is a symptom of that kind of environment.

Tomas: The full identity is there. You just have to step into it. I mean, it’s everything – the music and also the whole feeling of international brotherhood and all that. You become someone when you’re 15 or 16 years old. That’s the thing about people developing now at the same age. I always say we were the lucky generation in a way, because as Anders was saying, like 10 or something, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was there, then we were old enough to start buying records. We were there for that, then we saw thrash metal happening in our teens when we were old enough to get into something creatively, so I had a band, and they had a band before that, we were turning fifteen and sixteen, and then the death metal underground happened. By the time death metal albums started actually getting released, we were established enough at the time to release an album ourselves.

So much of metal and even rock 'n’ roll’s beginnings are rooted in rebellion, be it against religion, authority, or a whole litany of things. Was the turn to heavy metal a kind of rebellion in a way for you guys as teenagers in Sweden?
Tomas: Sweden’s a very safe country and—

Jonas: It’s the least religious country but the normal thing was a protest against parents.

Tomas: Just like in normal life, you want it to be different from the whole normality thing, and Sweden is very normal, so it’s very easy to stand out, I guess. [Laughs]

Anders: Having something on your own you can be better alone or in small group. You can stand out from the guy next to you in school. It’s all about having this—almost like a secret world.

Tomas: And that stays honest as well. You start off being fans first and then musicians, but we still feel like we’re metal fans first and foremost but then we happen to be in a band as well. When you grew up with the underground, that’s the feeling you’ll always have, I think.

Looking at the trajectory of At The Gates’ career and seeing so much evolve and even devolve within heavy music, I’m curious how you all have seen heavy music and the scene that surrounds it change over the years?
Tomas: I would say definitely in one way it’s changed. But I think for us, people ask me sometimes why we’re not as successful, and it’s because we’re honest. We’re here as fans, and we never really cared how we were perceived.

Jonas: Image hasn’t really ever been our concern.

Tomas: But that’s the whole thing about now. If it’s there, then you’ve seen it in an instant. If you hear of a band, you can instantly have the whole album downloaded in two seconds or dismiss it in two seconds if you don’t like it as well. That whole thing—we are too old for that, I guess, because we still do the old way. That’s how we work. We see change, and I like the availability of the whole thing in a way, but I still think in the old way, and I think that’s why we’ve survived.

Anders: Yeah, I mean, it’s been about keeping true to ourselves and remembering why we started off in the first place.

Tomas: Now you get that instant gratification right away. After the show you can go on Instagram and see how many comments and shit like that. [Laughs] If you have a problematic show as we had last night, then yeah, you need instant gratification to lift yourself up. [Laughs] Otherwise we don’t really care.

Do you associate that kind of availability and immediacy of media with the recent growth in popularity for what’s long been considered heavy and extreme music?
Jonas: I think extreme music finally found its way into the normal environment. Back in the day, it was more of a tightknit community.

Tomas: It was very exclusive.

Jonas: It was very secret and secluded. Anders: And of course the internet has helped people to socially connect.

Jonas: And nowadays, people who didn’t even know that metal music existed can easily find it.

Tomas: And if you go on Pitchfork, it’s being reviewed next to other independent bands and different music. The kind of music that we play, the more extreme music, there is a certain interest for everyone because there’s a mystique that people are into, and they actually try it out. Before it just reached the audience that were already converted. Now we can actually reach other people. It’s helped, and it’s bigger and all that, but as a band we do what we do anyways. Write an album. This is how it’s conceived.

Anders: The accessibility for people to listen to metal has become very easy. You get on Spotify or YouTube, and you get instant recommendations on other bands. The hunt has become really simple.

Jonas: Back in the days you had to wait six weeks for an album to arrive, and now it’s just a click away.

What’s changed the most for you guys on a personal level since those early days of At The Gates? How have you seen your own perspectives change?
Tomas: I would say that is has changed a lot. But at the same time the core remains intact—like why we do it. It is as important for us now as it was back in the day but for other reasons. It was life or death in another way back then, and it was in a negative way.

Anders: It was like you had an idea to keep up with all the time, but now it’s only one part of my life.

Tomas: That part, when we are there, it’s still important. Maybe more important. More professionally. But really, to have a normal life helps a lot. I will say that.

Jonas: Family and friends and everything.

Tomas: A lot of bands in our position probably just do it all the time, and it’s very easy to lose your feet.

What lies ahead for At The Gates after MDF and for the rest of 2014?
Anders: We’re entering the studio in one month’s time.

And what was the mindset for you guys coming into this record now nineteen years after Slaughter of the Soul?
Anders: We started really early, and the process started last summer, actually. We had a full concept last fall, even. A lot of the song titles and lyrics were already written like half a year ago. Now we have everything done.

Jonas: The album is complete. It just needs the final arrangements.

Tomas: Especially with this album there was really two ways we could go into it. We could be really calculating and go, “Oh shit, this is really important. People are gonna really expect a lot. This is the most important album we’ve done.” We could go into that way and overthink everything, and we’re still very meticulous about all the details, of course, but the other way would be just to go wherever the thing takes us. It sounds very cosmic or philosophical, but the music is out there. You just need the fucking medium to get it out to the people.

Anders: Actually, we just went and bought the riffs on eBay. [All laugh]

Tomas: But it’s like when we first started writing the initial songs, it just grew. First lyrics and then, “Ah, we’re onto something here,” and then something else evolved.

Jonas: We weren’t really sure if we would do another album, but we started and tried writing songs, and it happened. You shouldn’t be writing music if you are forced to write. Nothing good comes from that. When you have writer's block, you’d better wait for a couple of days until you feel more inspired.

Tomas: We really just fed off each other during the whole process. I mean, this album has been in all our heads the whole time since we first started working on it. There was always an idea the whole time. A small part, and then we’d say, “Oh yeah, that’s the whole song. Let’s do that!” We’re all in the process, and we’re all focused, so when I’d get an idea, it might be too crazy, but these two guys can put in the right place.

Anders: Channel it.

Tomas: Right. If I was writing by myself, it wouldn’t be good. The people who are in this band have a good perception of music in general and it’s what comes first. As I said, we’re fans.

Jonathan Dick is on Twitter - @steelforbrains