"Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" is the first single released by Polyvinyl Records from Of Montreal's 2007 album Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?.
The song opens with a Roland Jupiter 8 bass into a lead made with a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5.
[citation needed] In an early review of the song, posted shortly after the leak of the album in September 2006, Pitchfork Media's Andy Dubbin describes it as "one of the more breakneck, 'old Of Montreal'-styled songs on an otherwise discofunk-lite album, bringing proper attention to itself without overextending its theme.
In his review for Pitchfork, Dubbin suggests that "'Heimdalsgate' takes up the drugs-as-artistic-inspiration vs. drugs-as-personal-ruin dilemma and plays it out with equally conflicted musical gestures.
by The Stranger's Christopher Frizzelle in direct reference to the song's "chemicals", Barnes says, "Yeah, that has nothing to do with drugs.
"Promethean Curse" alludes to the ancient myth of Prometheus; Barnes is thought to be employing the curse as it pertains to "the burdens of consciousness and creativity" inflicted upon mankind when, against the demands of Zeus, Prometheus brought fire to earth.