For some time, Trivium frontman and renowned metal guitarist Matt Heafy has been working on a black metal project with Emperor mainman and experimental music savant Ihsahn. Now, it appears that this project is finally done — and it’ll feature Matt singing entirely in Japanese.
As reported by Metal Hammer, Heafy recently appeared on Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta’s podcast ‘The Jasta Show’ and outlined the details of this long-awaited project.
“[Ihsahn]’s been producing and co-writing [this new project] with me for about 11 years, and it finally comes out in the middle of next year, which should be fun,” said Heafy. “It used to be called Mrityu, which I got from Ashtanga yoga, it means the concept of life and death — same thing as the ouroboros, same thing as the Japanese Enso, the idea that life and death are always symbiotic with each other.
“I didn’t really know what to write about lyrically, and I was talking to Ihsahn because I’ve always loved Scandinavian mythology, Norse mythology, and Swedish mythology, I wish I could write about Thor and Jörmungandr, I love these stories,” continued Heafy. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, but Matt, those have been done a lot, and you have your own rich history to tap into with your Japanese side…’ And then a lightbulb went off, I was like. ‘I need to just write about that.’ I started writing all the lyrics about Japanese stories because that’s something that hasn’t really happened.
“There isn’t really a band that writes about Japanese folklore or the Shinto gods and goddesses and fictitious stories of Japanese history,” said the guitarist and vocalist. “So I changed the band name to Ibaraki, which is actually Trivium‘s mascot – an easter egg in there – and the entire project is Japanese-themed. The art, the lyrics, I’m actually singing in Japanese, Ihahn‘s on the record.”
Check out the full interview below:
More news on this project as we come to it, but suffice it to say, we’re stoked!
***
Words by Chris Krovatin
