Lock Up: At the Gates’ Tomas Lindberg Out, Brutal Truth’s Kevin Sharp In
When you think of At the Gates’ Tomas Lindberg and Brutal Truth’s Kevin Sharp, wwhat do you think of? That’s right: distinctive hats!
This is why the news that supergroup Lock Up has swapped Lindberg for Sharp is not at all worrisome. If the band had replaced Lindberg with, say, Pig Destroyer’s J.R. Hayes or Rotten Sound’s Keijo Niinimaa — men who are not known for their headwear — I might think, “Uh-oh, this band is totally fucked.” As it stands, though, the worst-case scenario is really that fans are briefly confused about the absence of a baseball cap and the presence of a cowboy hat.
Actually, this might be really good for the band’s artistic development! Variety, after all, is the spice of life, and Sharp’s cowboy hat will surely bring different elements to the studio than Lindberg’s baseball cap did.
It’s also nice to know that the split between Lindberg’s cap and Lock Up was amicable. Drummer Nicholas Barker (ex-Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir) tells MetalSucks:
“Tomas had to leave because he’s really busy with the At the Gates reunion. At first I was a bit worried about replacing him. But then we were able to lure Sharp by tricking him into thinking that Shane [Embury, bassist, also from Napalm Death] was just [mostly retired Brutal Truth bassist] Dan Lilker with a few extra pounds put on, I knew we were gonna be okay.”
No word yet on when Sharp’s cowboy hat will make its debut with Lock Up, or what the band plans to do if Sharp ever asks why Lilker has developed a British accent.
