NEWS: Ibaraki dream in myths and legends!

Featuring not only a guest solo from Ihsahn of Emporer but also guest vocals from Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, another single from Matt Heafy of Trivium side project Ibaraki has been unveiled in “Ronin” complete with cinematography by Jonpaul Douglass. 6th May will be the release date for the long player titled “Rashōmon” that has been in the works for more than a decade…

“‘A rōnin is a masterless warrior,” shares Kiichi. “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. One can begin to see the shifts as the years went on for the writing of the album. ‘Kagutsuchi’/’Ibaraki-doji’ being written and tracked in 2010/2011, all the way up to ‘Rōnin’/’Susanoo No Mikoto’ being written and tracked in 2016/2017.”

As for his collaboration with Way, Kiichi shares: “Gerard Way has been a long-time inspiration for me — like Ihsahn and Adam Nergal Darski — 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”