Trivium guitarist and lead vocalist Matt Heafy first premiered ‘In Defiance’ via his Twitch stream earlier this year, produced by Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda.

When first premiered back in February, Shinoda described his approach on Twitter. “Gonna try to keep the metal, but mash it up with lots of unexpected things,” he said.

By unexpected, he means the falsetto vocals that feature heavy, dubstep guitar riffs and giant solos. Fans will definitely be able to tell the difference between metal-heavy ‘The Defiant’ single released on the What the Dead Man Say album and the unpredictable cross between rock and dubstep in ‘In Defiance.’

Heafy has defied a few obstacles as of late.

Back in September last year, Brent Young, former bass player of Trivium died unexpectedly at the age of 37 with the cause unknown.

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“Having had a couple wonderful years with Brent in the Florida local band scene, doing the Blue demo and ETI together, the very first European mini-tour and first USA tour together – I have nothing but amazing memories of a wonderful person,” Heafy wrote on Instagram.

It’s also not the first time Shinoda has used Twitch to debut new music.

Shinoda has sought input from fans, sharing his creative processes in demonstrations on the platform and recording instrumental material based on the feedback. The result was his solo album Dropped Frames Vol. 1, released in July 2020.

Heafy is renowned as well for his frequent covers and production skills that he has displayed in the pandemic.

It’s only fitting that both musicians would use the platform again to release their songs, and even the artwork on the page has a “choose your player” element.

“Shinoda x Kiichi?!?”

“Stream it on repeat for the rest of all time!” Heafy exclaimed on Twitter.

You can read more about this topic over at the Metal Observer.

Check out ‘In Defiance’ by Matt Heafy and featuring Mike Shenoda:

YouTube VideoPlay

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