"BLACK METAL IS AN ATTITUDE" Emperor man and solo artist Ihsahn explains what it’s like to work with Matt Heafy

WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF TRIVIUM’S MUSIC?

“To me, it was metal for the next generation. I could hear all the influences that I had, but they took it in a different direction to what I did. They’re supertalented musicians; from the clean vocals to the more extreme stuff, you could tell that they were influenced by something much wider than just what that band was about.”

WHAT ABOUT MATT’S FIRST DEMO MADE YOU WANT TO WORK WITH HIM?

“I could hear the potential in the writing. A lot of artists who are interested in black metal write something that’s very olden. For me, black metal is an attitude; it’s not a type of guitar sound or vocals. It’s the emotions that it conjures up. We discussed my approach to it: ‘If you want to make a black-metal-like album, I’m probably not your guy.’ He immediately got that.”

WHERE DID YOU GET THE IDEA OF TAPPING INTO JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY FROM?

“Norwegian black metal dug into our cultural heritage - not so much Emperor, but something like Enslaved. Matt was very taken with that, but I felt that there was something more interesting in his Japanese heritage. All these pantheons are reflections of human emotions and archetypes. They simplify the chaos of the world to help us understand it.”

WHAT WERE YOUR ORIGINAL PLANS FOR THE RIFFS YOU LET MATT USE?

“I have a lot of sketches on my computer that have developed over so many years. While playing and writing [Ibaraki] stuff, I felt that those riffs really fit into the aesthetics of what me and Matt had been talking about.”

WHY DO YOU THINK YOU AND MATT GEL SO WELL?

“He is a really positive person to be around. He’s really creative and I feel kinship with that. I meet a lot of musicians who basically like to sit around and complain about whatever venue they’re playing and drink beer. I don’t connect well with that.”