Black Majesty Interview

 

Hello! Can you introduce you for my readers?

Hanny Mohamed (Guitars/keyboards) 

Majesty, Thy Majesty… What`s the meaning of your name Black Majesty and who is that person?

When we came up with the name we wanted to have a colour.. like Purple or Black. A few names were thrown around .. at one stage we were looking at Majestic Black as a name .. in the end we decided BLACK MAJESTY will be the name as their was no band at the 2002 with that name and we liked it.

Is there any connection between albums talking about adventures of person «Black Majestу»?

The connection of the character the Black Majesty came from our original artist Dirk Illing (Germany) R.I.P. He did our first 5 album covers until he sadly passed away in 2014 just before album 6 artwork was to be made. His conception that the Black Majesty was a lady warrior who was a Leo. And the Lions were her guides in her Journey 

Who is the main authors in band? 

The main writers of the band are always the band. Maybe myself and Gio, our singer, have written and prepared most of our catalogue but for the new album coming we are happy to have our new member and guitarist Clinton Bidie, who has jumped into the writing and has introduced some new neo classical influences that is perfect for the band.

I think, that roots of Black Majesty music lies in some Helloween and Iron Maiden dimensions. So who influent much more to create music of Black Majesty?

100% !! We are very big Helloween and Iron Maiden fans and that is always going to be a big influence in our music. We are also heavily influenced by Rainbow/Dio, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Power and Speed Metal, Traditional Metal and Hard Rock .

Did you made some concerts before covid and what was your best concert show?

We have managed only 2 shows during covid in Melbourne.. and many cancelled and postponed shows. Its unfortunate but it is what it is.. and we can’t wait for this covid epidemic to finish because its made a lot of problems also delaying our new album.

Favourite concert is very hard to choose.. we have been very lucky to have played at some great festivals like Wacken , Masters Of Rock CZ , to also touring with Helloween , Dragonforce, Saxon , Rhapsody to name a few, and headlined our own shows in Asia , Australia and Europe,,. So its very , very hard to choose...

But of course.. maybe the time we headlined a international festival in Jakarta , Bla Bla Bla Fest. Their were something like 10.000 crazy and loud metal heads . Was a lot of fun . That would be in my top shows .. along with the Australian Tour with Helloween and Dragonforce.. also a lot of fun . In my memory forever 🙂

From beginning of 2015 there was band members changes. Why is it so? After this band changes did something change in music in your opinion? 

From 2015 we lost 2 members. But still have 3 original members.Its just life, when you are in a band for so long.. some people want to do different things and some members want to follow their dreams with other things. No .. not much has changed as the main writers of Black Majesty are here. We will always be a Power Metal Band from Melbourne, Australia.

What is your favorite Black Majesty album and why?

My personal faveroutes are “Sands Of Time” 2003 (because it was our first) , “Silent Company” 2005 (because it opened the doors for us to travel and play in Europe) and “Children Of The Abyss “ 2018.( because I liked the energy and aggression.Me and Gio had to write most of that album under pressure and in the end we were very happy it became our highest charting album so far swell.. getting into top 10 Official iTunes Metal Charts for Germany , Poland , Belgium and top 30 in Japan to name a few ) 

Tell us please about work with Piet Sielck, R.D. Liapakis and Roland Grapow.

Piet Sielk - Iron Savior main man. He is a great person. We recorded the drums to Silent Company with him in Hamburg , Germany. I travelled their with our drummer at the time Pavel Konvalinka and worked with Piet their. It was a great time and always a  great memory for us as we are also Iron Savior fans.

R.D.Lipakis - we never had the chance to meet him as he mastered a lot of our albums at the time they were released by Limb Music. But always been happy with his work. And also we are fans of his vocals.Love his work with Mystic Prophecy and Devils Train aswell.

Roland Grapow - Roland has mixed and mastered our last 4 albums.And also recorded the drums for a few albums. Roland has been great to work with . Ofcourse not only because of Helloween and Masterplan we were always big fans , but spending time at his studio in Slovakia and working with him on our albums .. It has always been great working with Roland and a great honour.

Give a little characteristic to every album :

Sands of Time 2003 

Our first.Maybe most raw sounding as it was the first. Produced by BM and Ended Rivers. Our first recording engineer in Australia. Great guy and very talented musician to. 

Silent Company 2005 

One of the fan faveroute albums. A more faster album than the first. Drums were recorded with Piet Sielk , Hamburg and the rest was recorded with Endel Rivers here in Melbourne.

 

Tomorrowland 2007 

Also a high energy album.This was recorded with Endel Rivers in Melbourne.With this album we did Some nice festival shows on tour for this one .

In Your Honour 2010 

This was more a riff album. Wich was really cool . This was the first one recorded with Endel Rivers in Melbourne but Mixed by Roland Grapow in Slovakia.

Stargazer 2012 

Drums were recorded at Grapows Studio , than we recorded the rest in Melbourne. Than sent back to Roland for the mixing .This was our last album with Limb as it completed our 5 album deal. This was a fun , melodic album to make.

Cross of Thorns 2015 

Our first of a 2 album deal with Pride and Joy , Germany. Drums were recorded at Grapows Studio , then the rest in Melbourne. Then given back to be mixed and mastered by Roland. This one also had our good friend and webmaster Aldo Requena to step in for the art as unfortunately Dirk killing had passed away.

This was more a dark album but still has a few melodic power range tracks.

Children of the Abyss 2018

This was recorded in Melbourne and mixed and mastered by Roland Grapow. This one is a much heavier and faster album. I would definitely say its our most speed metal album.We are very happy with the response we received including chart positions and many positive reviews.  

When will we can hear new album and what can we expect from it? 

We are going into the studio to record the drums here in Melbourne on February 25. We expect to have a full album ready for release by mid/late 2022 🙂

And my specials question at the end. Heavy Metal is eternal, but does it need some new, fresh things or nothing new under the moon – and heavy metal must be heavy metal and nothing at all?! 

Heavy metal will never die. Just like when you think of Classical Music. Classical was made hindered of years ago and still today is strong. No matter how people want to keep changing it , or adding new things , it will always come around the cycle and its best played traditionally without so many New or NU changes.

But.. that’s what I prefer .. all people have there own preferences 🙂 

Thanks for this interview! Good luck!

You are welcome !! Thank you for the questions !! We hope to see you on tour one day when all this

Covid shit is over !! Metal Cheerz from Melbourne , Australia .. Hanny and BM

Questions: Евгений Jackhammer Молот