The Unholy Pagan Past by Erlik is the kind of release that doesn’t ask for your attention — it rips it straight out of your skull and grinds it into dust. Four tracks of unfiltered, unrepentant, unholy Black Metal that sounds like it was recorded in the fiery gut of some ancient mountain god who’s just learned about electricity and decided to start a band.
From the moment you hit play, the sound hits you like a swarm of hornets to the brain. The production is raw as hell — not lo-fi in a hipster, “we recorded this on purpose in a tin can” kind of way, but in a genuine, primal blood-under-the-fingernails sort of way. Every instrument sounds like it’s trying to tear its way out of the mix. The guitars don’t so much play riffs as they vomit noise, jagged and vicious, bleeding distortion from every pore.
And the drumming… Erlik doesn’t just lean into blast beats, he weaponizes them. One second you’re being pummelled into oblivion, and the next, he drops into these broken, spasmodic non-blast rhythms that make the whole thing feel unstable and dangerous. It’s unpredictable in the best way possible — chaotic, but alive.
Then there are the vocals. They sound like they were recorded through the crack in a coffin lid. There’s no attempt at polish here, no layering or studio trickery — just a shrieking, guttural, throat-ripped howl that sounds like the tortured cries of something buried centuries ago that’s just woken up and isn’t at all happy about it. It’s pure, undiluted anguish, and it fits the music like a barbed wire crown.
Erlik’s songwriting approach here is fascinating in its simplicity. The riffs are repetitive but hypnotic, cyclical in that old-school Pagan Black Metal way that draws you into a trance of violence and decay. There’s something ritualistic about it. You feel every scrape of the pick, every crash of the snare, every unholy scream clawing at your ears.
And just when you’re ready to crawl away, half-deaf and spiritually exhausted, the final track — a one-minute twelve outro — drags you back down into the crypt. It’s like the final exhale of a dying demon, a haunting, atmospheric little fragment that leaves you in silence wondering what the hell just happened.
The Unholy Pagan Past isn’t an easy listen, and it’s not meant to be. This is not the kind of Black Metal you put on while you sip wine and stroke your beard — this is the sound of feral madness and religious desecration, of noise as worship and chaos as creed. It’s filthy, it’s ferocious, and it’s fucking glorious.
The Unholy Pagan Past is available from the Erlik Bandcamp page.
CHOICE CUT: Unforgettable Wisdom
BLACK METAL ARCHIVES VERDICT: An unholy offering of raw, chaotic evil. Ugly, punishing, and absolutely essential for those who worship at the altar of distortion and decay.
