TRIVIUM frontman and guitarist Matthew K. Heafy, under the name “KIICHI CHAOS” and leading metal and hard rock label Nuclear Blast have teamed up with leading global esports organization Team Vitality for the launch of ‘Metality (The Vitality Anthem)’.

Crafted by Heafy and mixed by prolific producer Josh Wilbur, ‘Metality (The Vitality Anthem)’ demonstrates the growing parallels between competitive gaming and music. ‘Metality (The Vitality Anthem)’ is the first project in what will be a long-term collaboration between Team Vitality and Nuclear Blast. 

Heafy worked to produce a song which was able to capture the power of esports with heavy metal providing the perfect backdrop. ‘Metality (The Vitality Anthem)’ aims to be a mainstay for Team Vitality with the track being used during events and competitions. 

You can stream ‘Metality (The Vitality Anthem)’ by KIICHI CHAOS on YouTube, Spotify, and more. Listen here: https://bfan.link/metality.ema

“Metal and gaming are two constants in my life that I hold near and dear,” Heafy states. “I’ve always found that gaming and metal go so well together… it’s as if they BELONG together.”

He continues, “Vitality is an org I have been a longtime fan of — I love their players and I feel they are some of the best on the planet. I love that they have their Metality brand built inside the org as well!  When I was approached to create the theme song for their CS:GO team, I knew instantly what it needed to sound like. It was such a blast to create the piece in which I heard in my head when I think of Vitality and Metality.  Thank you so much to Vitality for allowing me to do this — the partnership between Vitality x Nuclear Blast x Kiichi Chaos is going to show the world how far ahead of the game Vitality is. I look forward to what the future holds for Vitality!”

“I am thrilled about this collaboration with both Matt Heafy and Vitality,” says Nuclear Blast Head of Marketing Tiffany Cantegrel. “Creating more synergies between metal and gaming has been on Nuclear Blast’s radar for a while, and we are proud to make a striking entrance into the esport space with those two heavyweights. It’s a project built from scratch in just one month thanks to the passion of all partners involved. Expect other exciting initiatives to follow!”

Cantegrel finishes, “As a metal fan, I am amazed this killer track will be the Vitality CS:GO anthem, and proud to release it on Nuclear Blast. Special kudos to Matt; his combination of talent, enthusiasm and kindness is unparalleled.”

Team Vitality is more than just an esports organization but a lifestyle brand that embraces the fashion, music, and entertainment worlds. For the Metality campaign, Team Vitality wanted to find a musical universe that matched the energy and style of the CS:GO competitive ecosystem. Spearheaded by Christophe Dureau, Head of Creation at Team Vitality, the theme of heavy metal was born with the campaign taking inspiration from touring metal bands, strong black and red colors and rock musical instruments. 

Since its inception in 2013, Team Vitality has grown into one of the biggest esports organizations in the world and is home to some of the industry’s best esports players who compete in the biggest global esports titles. Team Vitality’s CS:GO team includes world-renowned esports players Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and Lotan “Spinx” Giladi. After winning ESL Pro League Season 16, Team Vitality’s CS:GO powerhouse team will be heading to one of this year’s biggest CS:GO events, the 2022 IEM Rio Major on October 31. The team is also currently ranked number one on the prestigious HLTV team ranking.  

As part of the collaboration with Nuclear Blast, Team Vitality will also host a special Danish Metality activation on Monday, November 21. Metal group MØL will hold a special concert for Team Vitality’s Danish fans and the wider esports community with more details coming soon. 

“Team Vitality is very proud to collaborate with Matt Heafy and metal label Nuclear Blast. The first result of this partnership is bringing one of the most respected frontman in the genre to create the hymn for Team Vitality! As a rock/metal enthusiast, I immediately connected with Matt and Nuclear Blast, on both the creative and human side. We love the anthem, it’s catchy, heavy and powerful, just like our CS:GO team! It was amazing that Metality was about to transcend esports frontiers and get noticed by the likes of Hellfest festival and Matt Heafy,” said Christophe Dureau, Head of Creation, Team Vitality.

ABOUT TEAM VITALITY:
A global esports organization, Team Vitality is dedicated to the development of excellence and forging a new generation of esports athletes. Home to the world’s best players competing across eight games, Team Vitality intends to dominate the European competition and become a serious contender for the most prestigious global tournaments. A worldwide recognised lifestyle and entertainment brand, Team Vitality and its athletes have over 14 million followers across social media and carry industry-leading partners including adidas and Tezos. Founded in 2013 by Nicolas Maurer and Fabien Devide, Team Vitality is headquartered in the heart of Paris in V.Hive, their state-of-the-art public esports complex, and its players train in V.Performance, a cutting edge facility in the iconic Stade de France. Team Vitality continues to expand beyond France and has athletes and coaching staff of 16 different nationalities.

ABOUT MATTHEW K. HEAFY:
Matthew K. Heafy is also an avid gamer who steadily built his Twitch profile to massive success in the past few years. His Twitch efforts have been featured by The New York Times, Microsoft, TechCrunch, Forbes, and beyond. He is also a practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a food connoisseur. Heafy streams daily on his Twitch channel “matthewkheafy,” displaying the behind-the-scenes work it takes to stay in shape to play guitars and do vocals. He plays Trivium songs by request and every day is a new show made by the fans, for the fans.  Some of Heafy’s notable accomplishments include hosting the first-ever full metal gaming village at Wacken Open Air, competing against Ninja in the Twitch Rivals Summer Skirmish, competing and celebrating the opening of Full Sail’s esports arena, creating Shroud’s theme song, being Streamlab’s top streamer merch seller of all time, being in the top 100 most subscribed to channels on Twitch, leading the charge as the pioneer of music streaming on Twitch (also partnering with Twitch to make the official how-to guides on streaming music on Twitch’s help page), and co-founding the Metal & Honey Foundation, which supports the Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for children. 100% of the proceeds directly benefit the music therapy program. Heafy also appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show, where he surprised a fan and gifted him with a guitar.