{"id":312861,"date":"2026-03-04T17:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/312861\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T17:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:18:08","slug":"erbeet-azhak-only-the-vile-will-remain-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/312861\/","title":{"rendered":"Erbeet Azhak – Only the Vile Will Remain Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I\u2019ll take \u201cGlobal Notables\u201d for $600, please, Ken\u2014The clue: Country famous for its waffles, chocolate, beer, and castles. The answer\u2014What is Belgium?! Correct! Belgium is also home to some pretty decent black metal bands\u2014Lugubrum, Enthroned, and Wiegedood, to name a few. Here to add another branch to that blackened Belgian family tree is Erbeet Azhak, the side project of one pretty busy Corvus von Burtle\u2014C.V.B.(Cult of Erinyes, Wolvennest, LVTHN, Aerdryk). Erbeet Azhak\u2019s debut album, Only the Vile Will Remain, helmed by his Cult of Erinyes bandmate and all-around metal maestro D\u00e9h\u00e0 at Blackout Studio, promises to stand \u201cas a manifesto in which hatred and chaos coexist under the dominion of a faceless yet resolute entity.\u201d Let\u2019s plant the dark seed of Erbeet Azhak\u2019s Only the Vile Will Remain together and see what slithering roots sprout from within.<\/p>\n

Erbeet Azhak\u2019s black metal is desolate and chaotic, but doesn\u2019t stray far from trails travelled by C.V.B.\u2019s other projects. Still, it finds him further flexing his vocal muscles, which are a mix of everyman blackened rasps alongside tonal shouts and growls that sound a lot like F.O.A.D.-era Nocturno Culto. Even as Erbeet Azhak brings C.V.B.\u2019s own guitar and bass talents to bear, guest musicians S. Iblis\u2019s (Possession) lead guitar, Onbra Oscoura\u2019s (Abyssal Vacuum) bass, and Laye\u2019s (Putrid Offal) drumming flesh out a sound palette that explores several black metal styles. Sargeist lurks in the riffs of galloping melodicism present on \u201cThe Wings of Liberation,\u201d just as Blut Aus Nord fans can belly up to a bar stocked with blasting beats and decaying dissonance (\u201cLecherous Angels,\u201d \u201cDeath to the Self\u201d). Further examination finds traces of Aosoth in the near blackened war metal of \u201cOnly the Vile Will Remain,\u201d while devotees of doomier plods ala late-era Darkthrone should find comfort in the folds of \u201cErbeet Azhak.\u201d Despite what seems such a mixed bag, Only the Vile Will Remain encases its twists and turns in a production that provides sonic consistency.<\/p>\n

Raw but nuanced, Erbeet Azhak packs as many interesting details into Only the Vile Will Remain as Luciana Nedelea did her excellent cover art. I particularly enjoyed the engaging guitar leads that creep amongst the riffs and blast beats of \u201cThe Weakness of Our Cycle\u201d as much as I did the intriguing riff patterns and spacy, atmospheric interlude that hijacks \u201cThe Inner Circle\u201d around the 2:45 mark, segueing into a really nice melodic guitar solo. Iblis\u2019s performance warrants particular note, as he peppers the whole of Only the Vile Will Remain with lots of satisfying, melodically intricate solo work not present on most black metal of this ilk (\u201cThe Wings of Liberation,\u201d \u201cDeath to Self\u201d). C.V.B.\u2019s performance on the mic also deserves a nod. While he\u2019s never contributed in this way on any of the other projects he\u2019s involved with, save Aerdryk, his vocals fit what Erbeet Azhak does well and add a layer of gravelly, gothic tension and menace. The vocal cherry on top, however, belongs to Zd from LVTHN, whose inhuman screeches absolutely haunt the back-end passages of \u201cLecherous Angels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"While Only the Vile Will Remain isn\u2019t a sprawling, over-bloated behemoth by any means, it could benefit from a little nip and tuck. Erbeet Azkhak traverses the many planes of its black metal existence with relative ease and is most compelling when song lengths provide enough room for all the transitions to develop. Evident even on the albums second shortest song, \u201cThe Wings of Liberation,\u201d which transitions from a galloping mid-pace to a blast-furnace passage before moving on toward a guitar solo flowing with melodicism and then back again, all within the span of 4:06. Ironically, this leaves the 3:46\u2019s of the title track stuck in my craw as the album\u2019s most boring; its straight-forward, blast-beat-overloaded war-metal approach sticking out sorely amidst the much more atmospheric fare on display. Cutting this and the mostly superfluous intro would have left Only the Vile Will Remain a more lethal beast.<\/p>\n

Erbeet Azhak hasn\u2019t revolutionized the landscape of black metal, neither in Belgium nor in the broader, raw-as-misanthropic scene in which Only the Vile Will Remain operates. Those intrigued by the name drops above should find something of value here. I know I got more than I was expecting. For now, I\u2019d say there\u2019s a fresh sprout on the Belgian black metal family tree with Erbeet Azhak\u2019s name on it; whether that grows into a sturdy branch or not, only time will tell.<\/p>\n

Rating: 3.0\/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb\/s mp3
Label: Amor Fati Productions<\/a>
Websites: Bandcamp<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ll take \u201cGlobal Notables\u201d for $600, please, Ken\u2014The clue: Country famous for its waffles, chocolate, beer, and castles.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2246,9654,170091,170092,170093,842,2278,156052,156,170094,170095,157,111,139,69,170096,762,170097],"class_list":{"0":"post-312861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-2246","9":"tag-3-0","10":"tag-amor-fati-productions","11":"tag-aosoth","12":"tag-belgian-metal","13":"tag-black-metal","14":"tag-blut-aus-nord","15":"tag-darkthrone","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-erbeet-azhak","18":"tag-mar26","19":"tag-music","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-only-the-vile-will-remain","24":"tag-review","25":"tag-sargeist"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}