Ibaraki, the band headed up by Trivium's Matthew Kiichi Heafy alongside black metal legend Ihsahn, just released their long-awaited debut album Rashomon. To celebrate, the project is now streaming a dark music video for the song "Kagutsuchi" directed by both Jon Paul Douglas and Kyle A. Loftus. "Kagutsuchi" also features a bass solo from Trivium bassist Paolo Gregoletto, which fits perfectly into the sprawling progressive heaviness of the song's lengthy runtime.
"'Kagutsuchi' is the turning point in my relationship to black metal," says Kiichi. "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."
"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."
Rashomon is available here.
