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.”