Heathen

Heathen is an American thrash metal band from the San Francisco Bay Area, active from 1984 to 1993 and from 2001 onwards. Despite lacking commercial success, the band is credited – alongside Exodus, Testament, Forbidden, Death Angel and Vio-lence – as a leader of the Bay Area thrash metal scene of the mid-to-late 1980s. To date, Heathen has released four studio albums: Breaking the Silence (1987), Victims of Deception (1991), The Evolution of Chaos (2009) and Empire of the Blind (2020). Guitarist Lee Altus' split with Heathen in 2026 left no original members in the current lineup, although he and frontman David White (who joined in 1985) have appeared on every album.