To say that Gothenburg misplaced a pillar when Tomas “Tompa” Lindberg of At The Gates handed away is a large understatement. In a current dialog with Argentina’s Cuero Y Metal, Darkish Tranquillity/The Halo Impact frontman Mikael Stanne provided a grounded, heartfelt view of the good friend who helped flip a decent circle of tape-traders right into a scene that modified excessive music.
“We sort of grew up in the identical a part of city; he was a really shut neighbor to me. And he was two years older, and he had a number of expertise. He began within the steel scene early. He had a fanzine. He had a band when he was 15. And he was simply such a devoted and passionate music fan, and it was actually contagious. The best way that he spoke about music and the best way that he considered music, and sort of lived via music, was infectious,” he recalled (by way of Blabbermouth).
“Everyone round him sort of began to really feel the identical means, and he liked to sort of unfold the music that he liked. So we spent a number of time simply at dwelling in his room listening to demos and cassettes and dwell tapes and issues that he acquired via his fanzine or that he would gather or purchase from all around the world. And I used to be a collector as nicely, and we bonded over that,” Stanne added.
They weren’t merely neighbors, but additionally collaborators in curiosity. Then got here the duality that so many in Gothenburg acknowledged: Tompa the soft-spoken good friend and Tompa the onstage catalyst.
“He had Grotesque, his first band, and it was this insane black steel band. And I went to see them on a regular basis. And I could not consider it as a result of he was such a pleasant, mild, very courteous and well-mannered, soft-spoken man, however on stage he was an absolute beast,” Stanne continued.
“And it was pentagrams and inverted crosses and blood and skulls and shit, and it was the good factor on this planet. And I used to be 15, 16, as I went to those reveals, and it was the good factor on this planet. And, after all, as soon as At The Gates began, that impressed us loads, however I believe normally he was sort of the hub that all of us gathered round. The steel neighborhood was small however very, very passionate on the time.”
Right here, Stanne articulates a well-recognized reality to extreme-music lifers: scenes coalesce round individuals who present up, share relentlessly, and push requirements greater. In Gothenburg, that power was Tompa. The geography of their lives even plotted it out.
“There was this bus line that went from the suburb the place we lived to town, and me and Tompa acquired on the primary cease, then the subsequent cease was Anders Fridén and the opposite guys from Darkish Tranquillity. Two extra stops and there have been the fellows from Tiamat and Peter Iwers from In Flames. And two extra stops had been Anders and Jonas [Björler] from At The Gates. After which we had been on the town. After which we’d sit in a park with a tape recorder and take heed to music and drink beer, principally. That is how we grew up and the way all of us grew to become associates and the way this scene sort of began and the way the Gothenburg steel scene began to come back alive. And he was the sort of hub that introduced individuals collectively due to his ardour and his sort of severe… He took it very critically,” Stanne defined.
“This music ought to be severe, regardless that it was all about very random stuff, like something from grisly demise steel, like Post-mortem, or political punk or no matter, he was into it and he took it critically. And so did we, due to him. And he began working on the native document retailer, and he would at all times suggest stuff. After which I began working there as nicely. And it was simply a kind of issues that he impressed and inspired. And, after all, we at all times went to their rehearsal room, after which we had rehearsal rooms subsequent to one another for years, so we had been hanging out in one another’s rooms and speaking about music, listening to no matter new songs they had been cooking, and whereas we had been writing. And it was the identical for all of the bands in Gothenburg.”
“After which, after all, the best way that he was on stage and the best way he sang was additionally for me, as a wannabe singer on the time, that is every thing I wished. Regardless that on the time it was simply black steel, it was lethal severe, and it was unimaginable to see how into it he was, and that impressed me to change into a vocalist as nicely. After which, after all, within the final 20 years or so, it has been one thing else. We have simply been associates, going to reveals collectively and going out to drink collectively, and hanging out, however he is at all times been an extremely vital a part of the Swedish steel scene, as a result of all people is aware of him and he is aware of all people. It is that straightforward.”
Stanne phrases paint a vivid map of an period: a number of bus stops, a handful of rehearsal rooms, and a community of ears pricked for the subsequent demo. Lindberg was a connector, the sort of one who drags an entire metropolis ahead by insisting the music issues.
“In fact, I’ve identified that he was sick for years, or a yr and a half, and so it has been actually troublesome to sort of dwell with that and figuring out that the worst would possibly occur. However we at all times sort of remained very hopeful and constructive up till the tip. So, yeah, it has been actually troublesome, however, thankfully, all of his associates are additionally my associates, after all. And so it has been a great neighborhood to sort of discuss to and hang around with them. We have now a number of sorts of gatherings deliberate that we will simply sit and speak about him and sort of bear in mind the great things,” he concluded.
