BLUTVIAL are a black metal band based out Hampshire, South East England, in the United Kingdom, formed in 2007. This is their 3rd full length record (first in 5 years) entitled "Mysteries of Earth", released through Heidens Hart Records on March 20th, 2018. It contains 10 tracks and over an hour of music.

This band's sound is very raw, in many ways to perfect soundtrack to a grim, frostbitten winter. Something evident with the very first song, "Beneath the Moon" is that the music pulls no punches, it has blistering blast beats, very distant guitars in the background, but also very fast picking and ominous effects in the low growl shrieks of Ewchymlaen. It does contain its share of melodies, which at times are reminiscent of NAGLFAR.

"Black Silence" follows a different path, it is more old school, with a distorted feedback intro that dwells in an atmosphere that is a cross between MOTORHEAD and SATYRICON. "Existential Rite" is a thrashy number with machine-gun riffing and healthy dosage of disharmonic elements and "Vaults of Unrest" uses the same feedback qualities as earlier on the album but with more rolling drums this time around that adds a more epic feel to it. Things get slower with "Carving Nihil", which gives a breather to the listener, and in its essence, does remind me a bit of ENSLAVED. The same slower picking style shows it presence in "Midwinters Halls" and leaks into a doomier approach in "Urnacht" , but ultimately caves in to chaos and dissonance.

"Doomed to Eternal Night" sounds like it came right out of MARDUK's playbook of never-ending violence and "In Praise of Noctula" is sinister in its message and output, and I find it is one of the strongest tracks on the album. The finale "Where Graves Spring Open" has pounding toms and interesting progressions, it's a strong way to end the album. Overall, the album is relentless in its approach, and does show some diversity in the songs and should appeal to fans of pure black metal.