In a breakthrough that may prove to bond people of different generations and genre fandoms, a guitarist has proven that black metal played without distortion is just surf rock! Sceptical? We were too, then we watched this video from guitarist and YouTuber Kevin Balke and we realised it is absolutely true!
In the video which you can view above, Balke deconstructs and then transforms a bunch of black metal's most menacing tracks into summery surf rock riffs. All he needed to do to achieve this is remove the distortion and play to a shuffle beat. Mayhem's Freezing Moon and Emperor's I Am The Black Wizards have never sounded so warm and inviting! The full six song setlist and time coding for the video is provided below.
Emperor – I Am The Black Wizards 0:02
Burzum – Jeg Faller 0:57
Mayhem – Freezing Moon 1:34
Dissection – Night's Blood 1:48
Darkthrone – Transilvanian Hunger 2:40
Satyricon – Mother North 3:03
Emperor's Ihsahn recently joined forces with Matt Heafy on the black metal project Ibaraki. Their debut album Rashōmon is out now via Nuclear Blast. Ibaraki recently released a collaboration with Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance one of a number of high profile collabs that have become all the rage lately.
Watch the video for Ibaraki's Rōnin (feat. Gerard Way) below.
The unexpected coming together of two of the biggest alternative icons of the MySpace era has understandably blown the collective minds of residents of both the emo and metal side of the collaboration, with Way's venomous screams, unlike anything we've ever heard from him before.
Heafy shared some insight into the song's meaning .
"'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. 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 Mikot' being written and tracked in 2016/2017."
As for his collaboration with Way, Heafy reveals that Way has been a source of inspiration for him for a long time.
"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."
Rōnin isn't the only big collab on Rashōmon, the album also features the previously released Akumu featuring none other than Behemoth's creative powerhouse, Nergal.
The debut Ibaraki release add to busy schedule for Heafy who has released several cover songs and a few solo singles following the release of Trivium's 10th studio album, In The Court Of The Dragon last October.
Buy In The Court Of The Dragon Now In The Maniacs Store
Listen to our Metal Maniacs playlist