Album Premiere: Holy Death – Separate Mind from Flesh

There’s more than one way to Separate Mind from Flesh, as the Las Vegas-based death-doom trio Holy Death quite persuasively demonstrate on their debut full-length album. There’s, for instance, the route these three took, the monstrously hostile way of combining skull-fracturing death-doom and spine-shattering sludge into one staggeringly aggressive wall of destruction. 

Torie John, Holy Death’s guitarist/vocalist, told us last year that Holy Death was formed after he had a near-death experience. Recently he informed us that Separate Mind from Flesh “is somewhat of a continuation of [Holy Death’s] last release Deus Mortis,” which we premiered almost a year ago exactly. The frontman continues to explain: “Instead of the focus being on the god of death, Yama, the focus of this record is on Yamantaka—destroyer of death. His influence is found throughout the entire record. This deity represents the aspiration of conquering the cycle [of] death and rebirth. For me personally this represents overcoming physical/metaphysical obstacles within my own life.”

Separate Mind from Flesh finds a kind of peace at the center of some impressively brutal punishment. As a track like “Shame” proves, it’s not all about the massive wallops and the sadistic heaviness. There’s a suffocating amount of misery amidst the atmosphere like an inquisitor’s chamber. 

Out tomorrow from Redefining Darkness Records, this is Separate Mind from Flesh.