Well, we all have listened to some sort of death metal, black metal and grindcore in our journey of musical exploration. How would you like it all at once in one show? Yes, Heathen Beast (facebook page) is a trio band from Mumbai who originally plays black metal with an essence of Indian classical music. It’s like they have gain mastery in combining genres and creating something really cool and unique out of it. Their latest album Scam has it all.
Surgical Strike (Do-Modi-Tisation) is a death metal piece with a pinch of black metal and grindcore elements to it. It’s heavier and faster and packed with riffage that bleeds aggression. It has solid grind goodness to it in some sections with rich distortion, low bass presence and also gives an impression of glazing some dark black metal like riffs. It actually had me guessing for a while that maybe I have this feeling because in my mind I already had them pictured as a black metal band. But whatever it is, the riffs totally blew me away. The vocal style remains pretty much black metal. But what really kicks it to high gear is when they throw in that dual vocal assault. The harsh scowl voice backed up by deep throaty death growls. It’s just brutal.
The drums really add to the overall intensity of the song. It’s blasting fast and steady where it needs to be. The velocity and the technical drive is commendable.
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The band has always been pretty sharp and blunt in their message through the lyrics. They are not scared to speak their minds, be it on moral, social or political issues. But who would’ve thought they would actually write a song on the recent demonetization scheme that has gone down in India. A surgical strike was carried out to curb black money by banning the 500 and 1000 notes in the country. Like it or not it’s the first major step taken towards corruption. But, it has also caused plenty of problems for the common man. It’s the poor people who have to suffer the most than the black money holders. Basically the song conveys a sense of betrayal and broken promises by our national leaders.
On the whole, I have to say this song kicks some pretty serious ass. It leaves you bobbing your head involuntarily and trust me, it gets better with each repeat play. If you don’t dig the lyrics, the music itself is fantastic. This is definitely one album to pick up for metal fans who are looking for a unique sound.
