Trivium’s Matt Heafy and Ihsahn’s joint black metal project has finished it’s debut album

Matt Heafy, frontman of the metal band Trivium, has for a few years been floating the idea of a black metal project called Mrityu, in which Heafy will team up with Ihsahn of Emperor fame. The project’s debut album has been in the works, and now it looks like the album is ready.

The name of the project has changed along the way. From now on, Mrityu will be known as Ibraki. The album will also feature a guest appearance by Nergal of Behemoth. The album can be expected in 2022.

Heafy talks about the project on The Jasta Show hosted by Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta:

”During this (lockdown) I was able to finally finish my black metal record with Ihsahn from Emperor. He’s been producing and co-writing that with me for about 11 years, and it finally comes out in the middle of next year, which should be fun.

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.

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. 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, Ishahn‘s on the record, Nergal‘s on the record.”