Matt Heafy's Ibaraki Recruits MCR's Gerard Way For 'Rōnin' Single

Matt Heafy is paying homage to his Japanese heritage with Ibaraki. This is a project that the Trivium frontman is really excited about and has been working on for a really long time. The debut Ibaraki album, Rashomon is coming out on May 6th, 2022 via Nuclear Blast Records. The record includes a whole bunch of features including 'Akumu' with Nergal, Ihsahn and another really cool one that has just been shared with the world. Along with the Behemoth single feature, Ibaraki also released lead single 'Tamashii No Houkai' which got lit up by Heafy fans.

The latest single is titled ‘Rōnin' and the feature on this one is the king of the emo scene - Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance. The single has Heafy truly lean into his clean vocal style in a way that mightn't work with Trivium. It doesn't last long though as the track crumbles into death metal carnage in the second minute of nine - yep it's an extreme metal journey with Gerard delivering black metal/scream vocals with him along the way.

On the single Heafy says:

"'A rōnin is a masterless warrior. The final two full compositions on Rashōmon see a significant shift musically. The album as a whole — with the exception of the intro and outro — is actually presented in chronological order of earliest written to latter-most. The actual guitar and bass tracks are a time-capsule of sorts in that their parts — on the final album — is actually from the year they were tracked.

Gerard Way has been a long-time inspiration for me — like Ihsahn and Nergal — I have looked to Gerard as a constant source of motivation to be creative. While Gerard and I may be from different genres than where Ibaraki and black metal stem from — outsiders of sorts — the spirit and intent of our performances is what unites our passion for pushing boundaries."

There are several minutes of wonderful instrumental bliss where Heafy explores so many different sounds that don't necessarily fit the mould for any style or direction, but he makes it all fit together beautifully.

Words by Ricky Aarons (@rickysaul90)

Stream Ibaraki - ‘Rōnin' (feat. Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance here and Pre-order Rashomon here

Stream Ibaraki - Rashomon tracklisting

1. Hakanaki Hitsuzen 2. Kagutsuchi 3. Ibaraki-Dōji 4. Jigoku Dayū 5. Tamashii No Houkai 6. Akumu feat. Nergal of Behemoth 7. Komorebi 8. Rōnin feat. Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance 9. Susanoo No Mikoto feat. Ihsahn 10. Kaizoku

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7rn2BhWHAg&feature=youtu.be