Rashomon is a labour of love more than a decade in the making. Trivium frontman Matthew Kiichi Heafy has always been vocal about his love of black metal and decided to embark on a project as far back as 2009. The original idea was to create an anonymised blast of pure Second Wave aggression, working under an alias in the knowledge that certain elements of the black metal crowd would never accept an offering associated with an act as comparatively mainstream as Trivium. This approach changed dramatically when Matt got in contact with Ihsahn and started exploring the Emperor legend’s solo output. You can certainly hear that influence all over this album. Like stunning Ihsahn solo albums from angL to Arktis, the project that would become IBARAKI morphed into something that...