Ibaraki

Gerard Way guests on new black metal album from Trivium's Matt Heafy & Emperor's Ihsahn

Pre-order Ibaraki’s debut album on limited white vinyl.

Ibaraki, the black metal project of Trivium’s Matt Heafy, will release its debut album Rashomon on May 6 via Nuclear Blast. The album was produced and engineered by black metal veteran (and Emperor frontman) Ihsahn, who also contributed guest vocals and some song structures and was a big influence on the project, as Heafy points out via press release:

[Matthew Kiichi Heafy], a fan of black metal before he even started Trivium, reached out to label reps for Ihsahn of Emperor, and the artist personally responded. He recalls, “It was so cool to get that nod and it inspired me to start checking some of his solo stuff. He’d just released his own solo record and I’d never heard anything like it — saxophones, clean singing, jazz chords. It was incredible to me. He’s this non-stop inventor. So I started writing in a totally different way.”

[…] “It was very loose,” says Ihsahn. “We just had rough demos for a very long time because we’re arguably pretty busy people, but suddenly, everything was cancelled and we had time on our hands for the first time, so it was like, ‘OK, let’s do this.’ We never got to work in the same room; he’d track guitars and send them to me, I’d run them through my studio and send them back. It was a new way of working, but it was like he was there on the other side of the glass. Matt is a very, very positive energetic and passionate music fan — we have similar attitudes to music and open mindedness. We hit it off, and it’s been really rewarding to me.”

“Akumu” (which features Nergal from Behemoth) and “Tamashii No Houkai” (ft. Ihsahn) are out now, and Nergal and Ihsahn aren’t the only guests on this album. My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way also sings on the song “Rōnin,” and Heafy cited him as a lyrical influence as well. Stay tuned to hear that one, but meanwhile you can watch the videos for the Nergal and Ihsahn collabs below.

The album’s up for pre-order now, and you can get it on limited-to-300 double white vinyl exclusively in our stores.

Tracklist
“Hakanaki Hitsuzen”
“Kagutsuchi”
“Ibaraki-Dōji”
“Jigoku Dayū”
“Tamashii No Houkai”
“Akumu” (Feat. Nergal)
“Komorebi”
“Rōnin” (Feat. Gerard Way)
“Susanoo No Mikoto” (Feat. Ihsahn)
“Kaizoku”