Trivium’s Matt Heafy has an exciting new black metal project that brings together some heavyweight metal musicians and he’s shared the first song from the project.
The vision for the project originally saw the group being named Mrityu but that’s now been changed to IBARAKI. Their first single is titled ‘Tamashii No Houkai’ and it’s a collaboration with Ihsahn from Norwegian black metal outfit Emperor.
Heafy and Ihshan also worked on the song with another prominent European metal musician, Nergal from Polish extreme metal band Behemoth.
The singer discussed the meaning of the song’s title in a statement, as per Kerrang!. “Tamashii No Houkai’ means ‘the breaking of the soul’ or ‘soul collapse’,” he explained. “It’s a Japanese term that didn’t exist before, but one we forged to reflect the song’s meaning.”
After calling Ihsahn “a longtime influence and mentor to so much that I do in music, Heafy added that writing their first single was the “turning point” for the project. “It summarised everything from the past, present, and future of what I thought black metal was, is, and could be,” he said.
Heafy has also been busy with his main band Trivium – they released their 10th studio album, In the Court of the Dragon, late last year. Although it only charted at number 71 on the U.S. Billboard 200, it performed strongly in Australia, reaching number nine on the ARIA Album Chart. It received strong reviews, with Loudwire naming it the 11th best rock and metal album of last year.
Trivium are also set to head out on a tour of the U.K. and Europe in 2023, after the dates were rescheduled due to COVID-19 travel issues. You can find the full dates and further details here.
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Check out ‘Tamashii No Houkai’ by IBARAKI:
