IHSAHN And MATT HEAFY Are 'Making Great Progress' On Debut MRITYU Album

MRITYU, the experimental black-metal side project of TRIVIUM frontman Matt Heafy, is "making great progress" on its long-awaited debut album. The disc is being produced by EMPEROR frontman Ihsahn, who wrote in an Instagram post earlier today (Monday, June 15): "It's #mrityumonday and me and @matthewkheafy have been tracking some killer vocals in @cubase.pro through #vstconnectpro by @steinbergmedia! The current situation prevents us from traveling, but with this technology it is almost like we're in the same studio. Matt is absolutely killing it and we're making great progress every session!! #mrityu #newmusic"

Back in 2015, Heafy told Revolver magazine about MRITYU: "MRITYU was initially intended to be a black metal band that I was never going to tell anybody I was in. I was going to make the music, and it was going to be pretty true to the '90s second wave-style-black metal — sort of like DARKTHRONE, early DIMMU BORGIR, early EMPEROR. But while MRITYU has its roots in black metal, it's become something so much more. It's not just black metal — it's anything I've ever wanted to try. Ihsahn from EMPEROR will be producing it, and he's co-written several songs with me. We'll also be recording it in Notodden, Norway, where all the EMPEROR records were done. It's just a matter of when. Ihsahn is incredibly busy and so is TRIVIUM. But he and I stay in contact and we pass things back and forth. And we have quite a few songs written and quite a few demos. It's going to be a dream come true when it happens."

Heafy previously said about his decision to launch MRITYU: "My love for black metal eventually spawned the idea of creating a side musical project based upon the same early values of Norwegian black metal: a project shrouded by anonymity — a musical venture that no one would ever know was 'me.' I think that initial idea was due to the fact that the black metal genre usually warrants some of the most elite-minded fans; the kind that… well, basically don't like anything anyone else likes — ones who even quickly turn their backs on their favorites of the black metal genre once any kind of popularity occurs. It's that close-mindedness of a small-faction of the fans that I initially wanted to try to grasp, but one day I befriended a new mentor who would help change that outlook through their musical and artistic influence."

He added: "Through [my] conversations [with Ihsahn] and the influence of his new record, the idea of the black metal 'project' I was intending to do completely took a new shape and form. No longer was I concerned what anyone would think about it — all I wanted to do was make exactly what I felt like; the principles of black metal I learned from Ihsahn all made complete sense with this attitude. Through the next few months, we would occasionally pass around more things for each other to check out, including passing back and forth the demos of MRITYU. The decision was clear — when time outside of TRIVIUM existed, Ihsahn must produce the MRITYU record."