While they’d hinted at it starting last week, the metal world was pleasantly surprised by At The Gates announcing that they would be releasing their first album since 1995’s landmark album Slaughter of the Soul. With the announcement having been made on Monday, Decibel caught up with Tomas Lindberg to talk about the new album. And as psyched as metal fans are about the comeback, the band have set the bar even higher. In fact, when asked to judge against the legacy of Slaughter of the Soul and last year’s death metal triumph, Carcass’ Surgical Steel, Lindberg stated:

We set our own bar—and it’s higher than Slaughter of the Soul and Surgical Steel combined. I know that a lot of people have expectations of what a new At the Gates album would be like, good or bad. But it’s our own expectations that will have to be met at the end of the day, and they are higher than anyone’s out there, I can reassure you that. The pressure is on, but the pressure comes from ourselves more than anyone else.

He then took a subtle dig at Carcass’ much maligned 1996 album Swansong, stating “remember they had to follow up Swansong and not Heartwork.” The band have stated that they’ve gotten about 14 songs down, and 11 or 12 of them have been deemed album-worthy. They’ve described the sound as such:

To answer your question, the record will be filled with a lot of the Slayer worship and riffage that is Slaughter of the Soul, but people will also recognize the more dark, melodic side that was With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness, and maybe some of the more pretentious arrangements that was part of our early career.

Well, this album is going to be pretty amazing. Check out the full interview here.