ALBUM REVIEW: Enterprise Earth – Death: An Anthology


The sign of a confident album is when the guest appearances bolster rather than salvage the work put in by the primary artists. Thus, Enterprise Earth’s Death: An Anthology (MNRK Heavy) is a certified scorcher in which the 11 featured tracks stand tall, both independently and as an aggregation of technically aligned Deathcore.

The wealth of intricacies and variety is but the starting point for this behemoth. So let’s get into it.Continue reading


Ryujin Share “The Rainbow Song” Single and Video Featuring Matthew Kiichi Heafy – Debut Album Incoming


New Samurai metal band, Ryujin, have delivered a new track and video, “The Rainbow Song”. It comes from their self-titled Napalm Records debut, set for release on January 12, 2024, and is one of several tracks on the album to feature Matthew Kiichi Heafy (Trivium, Ibaraki). It follows first single, “Raijin & Fujin” (the gods of thunder and wind) as their second song released from the long-player. Check it out below.

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Ibaraki Share New Video For “Jigoku Dayū”


Trivium singer and guitarist Matthew Kiichi Heafy has released a new video for the track “Jigoku Dayū” by his Ibaraki project. The video was directed by Black Card Films, and the song features on the 2022 Nuclear Blast Records album Rashōmon. Watch the video below, and find out more.

 

Buy/stream Rashōmon here.

 

When I first witnessed the original classic Japanese painting of Jigoku Dayū, I was mesmerised; then I read the story,” Heafy explains. “The story is one that still haunts me to this day: a woman captured, enslaved, and forced into a world of servitude. The kimono she forged for herself depicted all the scenes of hell — a metaphor of the prison she now lived in.”

 

More from Ibaraki:

Ibaraki — the name for a terrifying Japanese demon taken from feudal legend — is more than a solo record. It’s the end-result of a journey of an artist finding his voice. Its inspirations include everything from an adoration for the extremes of black metal to the exuberant storytelling of Gerard Way to the adventuresome worldliness of tragic bon viveur Anthony Bourdain. It’s a reflection of Kiichi’s multifaceted interests as well as a profound affirmation of his Japanese-American identity, and one that led him to confront one of his family’s most tragic moments. Like the artist behind it, there is much to the story of Ibaraki and it began with a timid email to one of black metal’s most revered and influential figures.

 

Kiichi, 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.”

 

While much of the material for Ibaraki was assembled over those months and years — as much a song-writing process as an exchange of ideas between friends — it wasn’t until the pandemic that the space was created and the idea could really flourish.

 

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.”

 

The creative interactions between the pair are the result of a deep trust borne of a commonality of their experience. “We both started our respective bands when we were 13,” Ihsahn says. “We got signed when we were 16. That’s young, and in essence we both found our path in life at an early age. We’ve talked a lot about that and our different experiences with that, because it’s like we know nothing else.”

 

While material was primarily written by Kiichi, Ihsahn engineered and produced and contributed some song structures, plus Trivium drummer Alex Bent, bassist Paolo Gregoletto, and guitarist Corey Beaulieu contributed to various tracks. Ihsahn’s wife Heidi even sampled some natural sounds from the forest near their home and his entire family. Additional guests include the aforementioned Way and Behemoth’s Nergal.

 

Follow Ibaraki:

https://www.facebook.com/ibarakiband

https://twitter.com/ibarakiband

https://www.instagram.com/ibarakiband/

https://youtube.com/@IbarakiBand

https://www.tiktok.com/@ibarakiband

https://www.ibarakiband.com/

 

 


ALBUM REVIEW: Ibaraki – Rashomon


Ibaraki is the new solo project from Trivium’s Matt Heafy, and Rashomon is released through Nuclear Blast, having been over a decade in the making. The name translates as “Wild Trees”, but is also taken from a terrifying Japanese demon of feudal legend, and the concept is a profound affirmation of Heafy’s Japanese-American heritage, incorporating a number of different musical styles. Although the main inspiration clearly sits within the black etal genre, taking influence from the experience of Emperor’s Ihsahn, who co-produced, and whose quirkier ideas from his solo work are peppered throughout the release. Continue reading


Trivium’s Matthew Kiichi Heafy Shares New Single and Video for Ibaraki – “Tamashii No Houkai” Feat. Ihsahn Of Emperor


Trivium singer and guitarist Matthew Kiichi Heafy has released the very first single from his highly-anticipated Ibaraki Black Metal project. Today, Ibaraki has shared the video for “Tamashii No Houkai,” featuring special guest Ihsahn of Emperor. Watch the video here.Continue reading