IBARAKI, the project featuring TRIVIUM frontman Matt Heafy and black metal icon IHSAHN, have unleashed their long-awaited debut album, “Rashomon”.
The band are also streaming the new music video for the song “Kagutsuchi”, which was directed by Jon Paul Douglas and Kyle A. Loftus. You can check it out below.
Adding to the coolness of the track, “Kagutsuchi” also features a bass solo from Matt Heafy’s TRIVIUM bandmate Paolo Gregoletto.
“‘Kagutsuchi’ is the turning point in my relationship to black metal,” says Heafy. “Before crafting this piece, I believed I needed to stick to all the tropes of tradition — I didn’t believe that I was able to attach my name to keep something legitimately black metal.”
He continued: “Befriending Ihsahn and having him as a mentor showed me that being true to oneself is far more important than being true to a genre. Ihsahn freed my mind and encouraged the sharpening of the tools needed to begin Ibaraki properly. The very recorded guitar tracks in this final album are actually from 2010/2011. This album is an auditory time-capsule of my journey in creating Ibaraki. ‘Kagutsuchi’ was the first song I wrote after I had begun my tutelage under Ihsahn.”
Get your copy of “Rashomon” at this location.