Review Summary: An album full of Shoguns
There’s quite a bit of intrigue behind the full-length debut of Ibaraki, the latest project from guitarist/vocalist Matt Heafy. The Trivium bandleader has been vocal about his desire to start a black metal-oriented project for years now and the celebrity endorsements along with the shift toward an aesthetic inspired by Shinto legends make for interesting prospects. Seeing Heafy hit a new creative high with last year’s In the Court of The Dragon also helps raise excitement for how Rashomon will turn out.
The results ultimately come out more like a blackened prog Trivium than any misguided hopes of second wave emulation, even featuring Heafy’s bandmates on the guest instrumentation. The songs aren’t so cut and dry with screaming verses and bombastic choruses, but the song structures favor a comparable tug o’ war between heaviness and melody with an overall grandiose tone. The guitars are similarly thick, and the drums are technical with plenty of interspersed blasts. The vocals also continue their scream-singing dichotomy though I must admit that this may be Heafy’s most confident clean singing to date.
But as redundant as that last paragraph makes this album sound, it reveals a more unique hand as it progresses. The symphonic tinges and incorporation of Japanese folk elements throughout make for a distinctly epic vibe and the songwriting dynamics feel less prone to formula, allowing for a more exploratory air to shine. The influence from groups like Enslaved, Opeth, and Ihsahn (who incidentally guests on “Susanoo No Mikoto”) is very apparent.
With that, the songwriting does well to balance its exotic and accessible elements. With the first couple tracks feeling the most derivative of Heafy’s main band, “Jigoku Dayu” provides the first notable curveball with its transitions channeling classic Opeth and “Komorebi” delivers a similar setup with equally satisfying results. “Ronin” is the album’s centerpiece with an especially climactic set of hooks filled out with an extended folk sequence and shrieks from Gerard Way of all people. As much as the guest vocalists admittedly feel like window dressing to me, it’s awesome to see the ***in’ My Chemical Romance guy put in the most memorable performance. “Kaizoku” is also a fun closer, winding the album down with a playful jaunt.
Matt Heafy already had a surprisingly strong turnaround with Trivum’s In The Court of the Dragon, but it’s satisfying to see Ibaraki’s debut album play out similarly well. While Rashomon initially seems to go by a similar playbook as his main band, it sets itself apart incredibly well by means of its commitment to Japanese theming and adventurous songwriting. This is the sort of album that I would’ve hated as a teenager on pedigree alone but ultimately admire for its maturity. If you’ve ever wanted an album full of songs like Shogun’s title track, consider checking this out.
