So after the success of their debut delight: Ayodhya Burns, Mumbai-based “Atheistic Black Metal” trio are back with their new EP “The Drowning Of The Elephant God”!
In the words of the band members themselves: “Heathen Beast believes in no god and no religion. We write about the world and it’s religion as we see it, we write about how it encompass and controls the masses in our country India. Our music symbolizes self belief and the fact that we choose our own path and make our own destiny. There is no God that writes your life and not everything that is bad in this world is a consequence of that karma. You are responsible. Heathen Beast plays a form of brutal metal to connect with those who think like we do.”
The band consists of: Carvaka on vocals and guitars, Samkhya on bass and Mimamsa on percussions.
The EP is something very different from what you hear in usual black metal. One of the most impressing aspects of the EP is the experimental usage of tablas and mridanga by Mimamsa, which has added to the heavy atmosphere of the EP. Unlike the previous EP, this one does not conceptualize one idea alone; each track stands by itself and has a theme of its own. I shall not reveal the themes of the songs as that would ruin the fun. But, once again, unlike normal black metal, the lyrics here are very different! The band, through their EP, has exposed the blind rituals performed by people in the name of god; something that we see and are aware of but purposefully ignore and the harm done to nature in the process. The guitar riffs and leads are undeniably vicious. The vocals carry the perfect element of black metal: Shrieks! The very maximal bass guitar, accompanied with so much percussion, in some parts of the EP kills the guitar. The vocals too become fuzzy, especially on “Contaminating The Ganges”. “Drowning Of The Elephant God” has a very great and memorable riff and the drumming too is excellent, but again, the bass again over powers in some places. The vocals are perfectly clear though. The last track “Bakras To The Slaughter” has a lot of usage of the tablas and mridanga and again, here too the vocals and guitar become fuzzy, but nevertheless a very good ending track.
The production was good, but it could have been better. The vocals were phenomenal; exactly how they should be: Screams! The bass guitar was very loud, taking away the away the demonic nature of the songs. The experimentation with the tablas and mridanga is a good effort but doesn’t go very well on all the songs. On the whole this is a great job done by the band. Something very unique and, at the same time, very controversial has been done here. This EP has been more of a story than an album, mainly because of the highly impressive lyrics.
Rating: 7.5/10.