The Bad Penny (beta)

“[At the Gates] are awesome human beings, and Tompa was the fucking unicorn.”

—

Many of us are still trying to cope with the sudden loss of Tomas “Tompa” Lindberg, arguably the best vocalist and lyricist in Scandinavian melodic death metal, last month. At the Gates, the band he led, helped pioneer one of metal’s best subgenres, also known as melodeth. Lindberg family, friends, bandmates, fans and anyone who reveres At the Gates are still processing and trying to make sense of his passing at age 52 due to a rare type of cancer called Adenoid cystic carcinoma.

But while people continue to shed tears over the loss of Lindberg, another iconic member of Scandinavian melodeth tried to help those still grieving by exclusively providing The Bad Penny with a downright hilarious story that could only happen in the world of heavy metal. Fredrik Andersson — who played drums for another legendary melodic death metal band, Amon Amarth, from 1997 to 2015 —simultaneously expressed his admiration for Lindberg and shared an Irish wake laugh during an interview this writer conducted earlier this month. 

(Stay tuned for an in-depth feature on drummer-turned-guitarist Andersson’s current project, Fimbul Winter, which features three ex-members of Amon Amarth and is set to release their debut EP, What Once Was, on November 14.)

Here is Andersson’s priceless, best memory of Lindberg:

[Tom and I] weren’t close, but I met him a bunch of times, and was a huge fan — even before [the band’s moniker was] Grotesque. My fondest memory of Tompa happened when I booked a show here in Stockholm [in January 1992] with At the Gates, right before they released [1994’s] Terminal Spirit Disease. They had just recorded the album and came straight from the studio to that show – and it was a shitshow.

It was horrible. I was a kid, I didn’t know what I was doing – and I booked seven bands! Katatonia was on [the bill], and a bunch of other bands showed up. I had been talking to Tompa, and I was nervous. He knew I was a big fan, and he gave me a cassette copy of [Terminal Spirit Disease]. It was so huge for me. I listened to that album nonstop until it was released. 

That show [was mayhem]. A guy showed up with a human bone that he was hitting people with. [People] were breaking windows. The police were there, and while I was onstage helping one of the bands, the speaker amp caught on fire. I found a fire extinguisher onstage. I noticed everybody in the audience started moving away from the stage, and I was, like, “What the fuck is going on?” I heard someone screaming, “It’s fire, fire.” I grabbed the [fire extinguisher], jumped off the stage and put out the fire.

After that, only one speaker worked, [but there were] three bands left. By the time At the Gates went on, the sound guy had left, because he was afraid that he did something wrong, which maybe he did. [Either way,] I had to actually mix [At the Gates’ performance]. I was standing behind the mixing desk trying to mix them to sound as good as possible with only one speaker.

After the show, I asked Tompa, “How was the show? Did you hear anything?” Because [At the Gates] didn’t ask for anything in the monitors, he said, “I didn’t hear anything. It was fine. We just played.” I was, like, “What a fucking pro.” 

[At the Gates] are awesome human beings, and Tompa was the fucking unicorn.

This entry was posted on 10/17/2025 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Exclusives, Interviews with tags Amon Amarth, At the Gates, Fimbul Winter, Fredrik Andersson, Tomas Lindberg. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.