The Heathen Beast Shall Be Unleashed Upon Thee!

Wow. Is that a threat?

Cover art for Ayodhya Burns. Photo: Carvaka and Rocklogy Designs

Indian black metal trio Heathen Beast are plastering that slogan all over the internet, and it’s making waves in the online music community. Rumors of the band’s impending album have been circulating since the summer, but this week, they finally announced they’re releasing a free debut EP, Ayodhya Burns, on November 26th. And just as a teaser, the group leaked two instrumental previews of their three upcoming songs on Facebook.

While “Religious Genocide” sounds like an EKG on steroids (high-pitched guitar chords are intertwined with sporadic blast beat drumming), Ayodhya Burns has more thought behind it. The title track has a building melody we follow throughout the song that eventually ends in a fit of discordant drum beats.

The three member group describes themselves as:

Carvaka who believes religion was invented and made up by men, having no divine authority.

Samkhya who denies the existence of God.

Mimamsa who rejects the notion of God and says that human action itself is enough to create the necessary circumstances for the enjoyment of its fruits.

While black metal music generally has anti-Christian and satanic undertones (some even practice church burning!), Heathen Beast is zealously atheist and believes “everything that is bad in this world is a consequence of that karma.”

It’s refreshing to finally see a band break away from the usual frenzied religious hostility associated with their genre. But no worries, from their bad-ass album art we can still see that they’re totally into malicious arson.

Snag their free EP in a few weeks here!