Does this have anything to do with Kurosawa's film?

Written by nikarg on 18.02.2022 at 20:21

Does this have anything to do with Kurosawa's film?

I found this on an article:

"Originally, the vision for the project began under the proposed moniker of Mrityu and, as the musician revealed over the summer, he and Ihsahn, who produced the project and co-wrote the new track, agreed it was better to change the name to Ibaraki as the aim and scope of what Heafy wanted to represent shifted.
...
The writing of this song was the turning point for Ibaraki — it summarized everything from the past, present, and future of what I thought black metal was, is, and could be," Heafy continued. He added that the song "is the perfect summary and representation of everything that Ibaraki is… and will be."

doesn't make it particularly clear why they made the change

^ I was actually referring to the album title ("Rashomon" is a film by Kurosawa). I cannot find anything on it.

Written by nikarg on 20.02.2022 at 14:54

^ I was actually referring to the album title ("Rashomon" is a film by Kurosawa). I cannot find anything on it.

I should've probably twigged that, since I've seen Rashomon and haven't seen a film called Ibaraki; looking up, Rashomon only seems to be used for the movie or a short story it took the name from, so I'm guessing the title is inspired by it, although googling the song titles doesn't suggest that it's a concept album based on it

Written by musclassia on 20.02.2022 at 16:35

Written by nikarg on 20.02.2022 at 14:54

^ I was actually referring to the album title ("Rashomon" is a film by Kurosawa). I cannot find anything on it.

I should've probably twigged that, since I've seen Rashomon and haven't seen a film called Ibaraki; looking up, Rashomon only seems to be used for the movie or a short story it took the name from, so I'm guessing the title is inspired by it, although googling the song titles doesn't suggest that it's a concept album based on it

Actually, the Kurosawa movie is a combination of two short stories by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, taking its title from the story "Rashomon" and its plot from the story "In a Grove". This album is probably more influenced by Japanese culture in general. The title of the second song - Kagutsuchi - is a Kami from Shintoism whereas Ibaraki is a prefecture in Japan.

About the music: After the last Trivium efforts, I didn't expect Heafy to go BM but I like the two songs released so far. The guest list is also promising. I'm really excited for it!

Written by nonZero on 04.03.2022 at 15:26

I'm a big fan of Matt Heafy's work in Trivium but I'm not so sure about this project. The first 2 singles haven't grabbed me and just feel a bit awkward to listen to. I also don't think his voice is harsh enough to suit black metal.

I will listen to this when it comes out, but I'm not hopeful...

(Also, Gerard Way? Cringe!)

Did you listen to the song with Gerard Way? It's actually really good.. lol

This is interesting. I just listened to the single with Gerad Way from My Chemical Romance. The clean vocal sections are painfully bad, but I was shocked at how good the black metal parts are. I’ll be interested in hearing the full album.

Written by Boxcar Willy on 30.03.2022 at 16:13

This is interesting. I just listened to the single with Gerad Way from My Chemical Romance. The clean vocal sections are painfully bad, but I was shocked at how good the black metal parts are. I’ll be interested in hearing the full album.

I'm not that familiar with these chaps, is Gerard doing the clean vocals, harsh vocals, or both?

Written by Zap on 31.03.2022 at 14:03

I'm not that familiar with these chaps, is Gerard doing the clean vocals, harsh vocals, or both?

Apparently Gerard actually does the harsh vocals on the track. Fairly surprised the guy from My Chemical Romance can produce some pretty damn good screams, though I don't know much about him or MCR so that might not be surprising to others.

Gotta agree with Mr. Willy that the clean vocals from Heafy are just straight up dreadful though.

Written by Alex F on 05.04.2022 at 17:42

Apparently Gerard actually does the harsh vocals on the track. Fairly surprised the guy from My Chemical Romance can produce some pretty damn good screams, though I don't know much about him or MCR so that might not be surprising to others.

Gotta agree with Mr. Willy that the clean vocals from Heafy are just straight up dreadful though.

Thanks for answering my question. Not too familiar with MCR either, aside from that one song that was on MTV all the time back in 2005 or so. Black Parade or something.

I'm not a fan of the clean vocals in Ronin either, which is why I was curious. I don't remember Heafy's vocals being this bad in Trivium but I haven't listened to those lads in a while. Unfortunate, since this has a lot of potential musically, but if the vocals are similar on the rest of the album, I don't think I can stomach it.

Why is this labeled as black? There's like 2 songs that sound even close to black metal, and in those it's just a couple of passages. More like symphonic prog with some death and black influences.

Written by silenius on 06.05.2022 at 12:28

Why is this labeled as black? There's like 2 songs that sound even close to black metal, and in those it's just a couple of passages. More like symphonic prog with some death and black influences.

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. There are some black influences, at most. At Metal Archives they are labeled as 'Extreme Progressive Metal'. That is indeed a better description.

I didn't expect to like this so much. I thought Matt did a great job blending all these different influences together to create something new. Biggest surprise of the year so far for me. I love how it features Ihsahn, plus his whole family!

If while you are listening to a track for the first time you think "I will need to come back to this to appreciate it better after I finish the whole album" , you are listening to something good.
If you approach it by expecting to listen to a "black metal" album or anything that specific, you will be disappointed.
This is a great album with a proper (music) gender-f@ck attitude!

Nothing against heafy but man his music sucks. this just sounds like shitty wilderun

Listening to the album as a whole, it's better than I thought it would be.

I would describe this as Progressive Metalcore and I don't like it at all... The vocals are whiny AF and very repetitive in quite a few parts.

After listening to the singles I wanted to listen to this as a whole album. What a mess, lot's of ideas sure, but it's sounds fucking annoying. It gives me the feeling that it goes nowhere, a huge mashup of ideas/riffs/different vocals. I was happy it ended after the first spin.

I feel like this would've been the next logical step for Trivium had they continued with the more progressive leanings of Shogun instead of dumbing it down. Sounds very Opeth at times. Still a fine album, def a bigger surprise this year.

Never liked Trivium, except for few songs... but this album surprised me. Good work!

Not a fan of Trivium, but I really like this album like in the bio of the album is more a Blackened progressive metal than black metal, It pretty clear that Matt was influenced by Ihsahn.

I've been really struggling to get into this one, there are some good moments here and there, but they are very few and far between. Some of the guitarwork is alright, and the clean vocals are good, but I don't think the songwriting gives them much justice tbh. To me it sounds all over the place, and the flow gets disruptive too much along the way. The lack of interesting melodies don't give it any favours either imo.

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 21.06.2022 at 13:41

I've been really struggling to get into this one, there are some good moments here and there, but they are very few and far between. Some of the guitarwork is alright, and the clean vocals are good, but I don't think the songwriting gives them much justice tbh. To me it sounds all over the place, and the flow gets disruptive to much along the way. The lack of interesting melodies don't give it any favours either imo.

Yep I'm in the same boat. It's just really sloppy songwriting.

I am also not a big fan of trivium but Ibaraki resonated with me a lot. Other than opeth I also found a bit of "a forest of stars" in this album. The guest list for this album is immense and very impressive. The guitar tunes are really creative. Overall quite an experience.