At the Gates Frontman Tomas Lindberg Details Recording Saxophone on New Album

At the Gates frontman Tomas Lindberg recently joined The MetalSucks Podcast to talk about the band’s forthcoming record, The Nightmare of Being, the legacy of their 2014 comeback album, At War with Reality, his work with Lock Up, and more.

One yet-to-be-released track on the new album, “Garden of Cyrus,” features a saxophone, new sonic territory for At the Gates. Podcast host Petar Spajic asked if the band’s decision to introduce the instrument was born of a desire to take chances, and Lindberg replied:

“That was the vision we went in [to the studio] with, [let’s] let go of our boundaries even more. To dare a little bit more, to let emotions carry it further than before. That’s where you have all this proggy influence, the doom, it’s almost minimalistic at some points. Emotions were the most important, even to the music.

“It was not difficult [to record the saxophone], as in we knew where we wanted to take it, especially emotionally, and we had an idea of the outlines and instrumentation pretty early on. Of course it’s a big project, but a fun project to work on. It’s fulfilling in a sense, you know that you’re leaving the safety. [laughs]

“But I guess, for example, the saxophone is the first time we ever had an improvisational piece on an At The Gates record and improvisation and metal usually don’t go hand-in-hand that well. Metal is more about precision and serious orchestration and meticulousness. It was interesting to see what a freeform jazz musician would do with the chord progression. It was so fulfilling to hear him go in there and just go wild with it.”

You can listen to the rest of our chat with Tomas right here or using the embed below.

You’ll need to wait until The Nightmare of Being comes out on July 2 to hear the saxophone in “Garden of Cyrus,” however.