Mumbai based Atheistic Black Metal band Heathen Beast‘s second EP ‘The Drowning Of The Elephant God‘ is finally released. Heathen Beast believes in no god and no religion. They write about the world and it’s religion as they see it, write about how it encompass and controls the masses in our country India. We caught up with the drummer Mimamsa to know more about the EP, their journey till date, views on religion and god and much more…

• Hi, Heathen Beast. Greetings from MetalIndia Team. Your second EP ‘The Drowning of The Elephant God’ is just released. You must be excited?

Yes the entire band is very excited about the release. Mainly because despite lots of setbacks and personal problems after the first EP we were able to come together and make this music.

•  First of all, we would like to know about the formation of the band. When and how was it formed? Do you think the band name ‘Heathen Beast’ perfectly decribes your music and philosophy?

Well me and my brother Samkhya have been learning music since we were pretty young and our parents being into Indian classical I learnt the tabla while my brother learnt harmonium.  Carvaka is a family friend and he introduced us to heavy metal and after that I shifted to drums and my brother started learning the bass. We have been jamming together form a long time but after getting into black metal in about 2008-2009 we started seriously practicing and around 2010 we decided to form Heathen Beast and record 3 songs that we had been working on. We feel the name describes our music and philosophy perfectly.

• Okay now tell us something about the EP, and the lyrical themes behind each track. What are the ideas you wanted to put across?

Our main focus is India, religion and all the shit that it spreads across our country, how it destroys our planet, how it breeds corruption, how it is an excuses for anything. The first song is basically about the festival of Ganpati and how the immersion of the idol is destroying our earth. The 2nd track contaminating the Ganges is about the pollution of the river ganga in the name of being holy it also talks about how people think that by taking a bath in a stupid river can make them free from their sins but in reality people have to do a lot more to change who they are.  The final track is about the slaughter of animals in the name of religion, it also speaks how hypocritical we humans are.

• Where and when did you record the EP? Are you satisfied with it?

My parents have a studio so we used this studio only. Me and my brother have both finished our sound engineering course last year from a reputed college in Mumbai so we are all working on it together and yes we are very happy with it. We are looking for a particular sound and we were able to put that across.

• Will you release physical copies of the EP, and official band merch?

No. If someone else wants to release it we are open to that.

• You guys have interesting lyrical themes according to the Indian context, unlike the other bands who mostly follow international style of the genre. What are the other characteristics that distinguishes Heathen Beast from other Indian Black Metal bands? Also name your favourite Indian Black Metal bands.

I don’t know we don’t think like that, we just want to write our music and write about what is important to us. We never think okay will this make us different from the other Indian black metal bands or not. We think there are some amazing black metal bands in India, we love Solar Deity, 1833AD, Dark Desolation, Spiked Crib, Insane Prophecy and Stark Denial.

• What are Heathen Beast’s musical and non-musical influences?

Musically everyone in the band likes black metal, I grew up listening to Hindustani Classical music so I enjoy that too. My brother is listening to a lot of Jazz these days. Carvaka likes to only listen to metal. As for non musical influences there are too many to list, our lives, our experiences, India, the world around us are all influences on our music.

• Could you please express our views on religion and god?

There is no God. Religion is a plague upon mankind and it should be destroyed. It was intended and created with a pure idea but any idea that commands so much power can rarely control that power and it blackens at some point and you are left with something truly evil and dangerous.

• Why is it that you choose to stay anonymous and not reveal your real identity behind the pseudonyms? Till when is it going to stay this way?

Our music needs to be heard. Anything else is a distraction. You will hence not see us. Some people know our real names because Carvaka can’t keep his mouth shut on chat, hahaha but that is ok, we don’t need band photos and all that. As for how long it shall remain this way, we can’t answer that because no one knows what the future holds.

• Will Heathen Beast remain a studio project, or shall we expect some gig scenes happening in near future?

Now that Carvaka lives in a different city it is going to be much harder to write music and going live is an even more remote possibility. At this point we don’t want to play live but if some day we can find a way to do it in a way that we are happy we won’t say no.

• Now that you have released two EPs, shall we expect a full-length album from you? Also, any plans for a music video?

Each song on this EP will have a music video. Not a music video that shows the band playing but definitely a visual to enhance the music. We have been very lucky that the scene has some very talented people who work for the love and passion of music and soon we shall unleash 2 more videos. The next release it is too soon to speak about, depends how much time we can find from our jobs and personal commitments but hopefully there will be less time between the releases.

• Thanks a lot for the interview. Speak out to your fans, supporters, critics and our readers before we wrap up.

Spread the music, carry forward the message. Thanks for always supporting Heathen Beast.