Erik Lindmark, Deeds of Flesh Guitarist, Dead at 46

Musician, who also founded Unique Leader Records, passed away after battle with sclerosis

Erik Lindmark

Following a battle with sclerosis, a disease that causes the abnormal hardening of body tissues, Unique Leader Records founder and Deeds of Flesh guitarist and co-founder Erik Lindmark has died at age 46. The label released a statement addressing the situation, paying tribute to the late death-metal CEO's legacy by saying, "The indelible mark he has left on the Death Metal genre is monumental, both as a business man and as a musician. After building this label from scratch with his Deeds bandmates, Erik took Unique Leader to a level he had never expected it, or the genre, to get to."

Lindmark is survived by his wife and their five-year-old daughter Bella. A GoFundMe has been set up for his daughter to help with future expenses.

Lindmark left "explicit instructions" while in the hospital that the label should go on without him, so the surviving staff plans to take through January to reconfigure positions in order to carry on their leader's wishes. Several popular technical and brutal death metal bands released albums on Unique Leader, including Decrepit Birth, Psycroptic, Soreption, and Fallujah, the last of which released their own statement.

Their statement on Facebook reads, "He took a chance on Fallujah when we were still in school working on what would become The Harvest Wombs. We, and the west coast Death metal scene along with a lot of other bands you all know and love owe a lot of their early careers to Erik and Unique Leader. Our condolences to his family and friends."

"My heart is heavy after hearing and trying to digest this news. Erik Lindmark has passed away," wrote Suicide Silence bassist Dan Kenny on Instagram. "A lot of people who know me, know how much Deeds of Flesh & Unique Leader means to me. He was a fucking legend for both."

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My heart is heavy after hearing and trying to digest this news. Erik Lindmark has passed away. A lot of people who know me, know how much Deeds of Flesh & Unique Leader means to me. He was a fucking legend for both. He is a main reason I stuck with playing guitar at a young age and aimed to be better. I was so influenced by him. He is the reason I bought a Jackson. I fell in love with the more underground brutal side of death metal as a teenager and his band Deeds of Flesh was constantly spun on my CD players. Has been and always will be one of my favorite bands easily. He started a label and gave a bunch of bands a better chance of getting ears on them and label to help them out. If you had a Unique Leader logo on your cd or your back of your band’s t-shirt, you know they were a sick band. I personally got to hang with him a few times and was always nervous because I looked up you him. I even got to go to his place in SLO and that was a crazy night. I was the young kid hanging with all my idols. He was at the top of the list. I give my love to his family, friends, and band mates. Thank you for everything and Rest In Peace brother Erik Lindmark

A post shared by Dan Kenny (@dankenny) on Nov 29, 2018 at 4:24pm PST