Australian power metal band Black Majesty hailing from Melbourne, Victoria, return to the stage for the 10th anniversary of the Stormrider Heavy Metal Festival. Stephanie sat down with guitarist Hanny to discuss their upcoming album and the latest from the band. Black Majesty are John Cavaliere (vocals), Hanny Mohamed (guitar), Clinton Bidie (guitar), Evan Harris (bass) and Zain Kimmie (drums). If you like Dio, Dragon Force and Judas Priest, you will enjoy Black Majesty!
Steph: Hanny, thank you so much for taking the time to chat to me out of your busy day. Tell me about Black Majesty and how you came to be?
Hanny: My names Hanny Mohamed, I am one of the guitarists for Black Majesty. I have been here since the first album, basically since the start. We formed in 2002. In 2002, we actually released an EP on our own, ‘Sands of Time (EP)’. We sent that to a few labels while we made the full album, ‘Sands of Time’, and we ended up signing with a label for the release. We have had a lot of chances since then to do a lot of mini tours and a few nice festivals overseas and some overseas tours as well. At the moment, we are up to album number eight, which is at the moment being mixed and mastered in Sweden.
Steph: That’s really exciting! It has been a while between album #7 and album #8.
Hanny: That is correct, yes. At the start, we wanted to take a little bit of a break, and we lost a couple of band members, and we had to regroup again. We started getting on to the new album, but then the Covid thing hit us, so we had to cancel a lot of sessions. Then we started again and as we were going, there were a few other issues here and there, and we again had to take some time off from the band. And then we thought we can rush it and get it done, or we could take our time, and we just decided to take our time. It was a good call, a good option to take. We have already released seven albums beforehand, there is nothing that we have to prove, we just want to do something that we don’t have to rush. We are really looking forward to the album.
Steph: It gives you that time to fine tune and polish it
Hanny: That’s right, it lets you get it as close as you can to how you want it. And in this case, we have written a lot of songs this time as well. Like the last album, but we have probably written a lot more and then we, after about six months or so, we thought alright, lets get rid of these six songs and let’s write another six tracks and see how it goes. Now we have got the flow better and we are a bit happier with it.
Steph: What can fans expect from the new Black Majesty album?
Hanny: We do have twelve full tracks; our normal release is to release ten tracks. For a Japanese release we will always include a bonus track and for a European release we will have another bonus track. But twelve tracks all up.
Steph: Will we get to see any sneak peaks of new tracks during Stormrider?
Hanny: We won’t get enough time unfortunately, there are so many bands and times are tight, we have so many tracks to already squeeze into that time slow. We are going to play three tracks from our last album, ‘Cross of Thorns’ which we haven’t played yet. We want to save it for the album launch, when we do the new album launch, as a surprise.
Steph: That is really exciting! Does that mean there will be a Black Majesty tour in the near future, to show off the new album?
Hanny: Definitely, once this album is out, we want to do an Australian tour and a European tour too. We might head down to South America this time, we have been wanting to for the last five years. We haven’t been because it has been stalled, but we will see what happens. We can definitely guarantee a European tour which we always do, and Australia.
Steph: What is the home town reception like in Melbourne when you play shows there? Is there a big metal scene?
Hanny: There is. Melbourne as a whole, for bands, always know to come and tour here in the first instance, and you always know that you will get two or three extra shows. There is a lot of support for music in Melbourne. And for the style that we play, we do get a lot of support which we appreciate obviously, and a lot of friends now too because we have been going for over twenty years now. We will have our twentieth anniversary too, along with the new album. We always enjoy it, sometimes a new album does better in Europe than it does in Australia. We really enjoy getting to play over in Perth, this will be our third time going to Western Australia so really looking forward to it.
Steph: Is there anywhere in Perth that you are looking forward to seeing this time when you are here?
Hanny: Bon Scott’s grave, definitely want to visit Bon Scott’s grave. I don’t know exactly where it is over there but I definitely want to see it.
Steph: What about song writing, because you have had such a long time to marinate on the songs between albums, what has been the process?
Hanny: The first process is that we work at home in our own areas, we all have our own at home studios, guitar studies and the like, so we will come up with the ideas at home first that’s like our own demo. Then we send them through online to each other. I will record something, if someone else has an idea, they will record on top of that, or next to it. Then after that we will meet up at rehearsals. We sometimes go through things as well, so we like using all these options and all those avenues. They always work, sometimes with just recording it, you don’t get the full feel of it. So you have to just jam it too, in a studio, to see if its going to work or not. Sometimes it works on the takes but it doesn’t work live. But it is always trial and error.
Steph: As a band that spans two decades, what would say have been some of the highlights?
Hanny: Getting invited to some concerts overseas, definitely! Wacken was a good highlight, we enjoyed playing there in 2007. That was sold out too, so we were really glad to be part of it that year. We have been put on some good bills. And this bill too! Stu and the guys from Stormrider have done really well. We are excited to play and he here for both days with them. Also getting excellent reviews from gig magazines like Rock Hard Germany and stuff like that has been a really big highlight as well. Especially the last album actually, getting into the actual official billed charts for iTunes and stuff like that, the official German and official Polish charts, things like that had never happened before so have been big highlights. It is really exciting but at the same time we didn’t know what to expect as well. Like ‘is that good?’ or ‘is that not good’ and then you over think it and land on ‘yes, that is really good!’
Steph: I see that your label is based in Germany, how did that come about?
Hanny: Yes, both labels that we have had, have been in Germany. Limb is based in Germany, and Pride and Joy is also based in Germany, close to Munich.
Steph: How do you go as a power metal band from Australia, breaking into the overseas market, now with a wonderful long relationship with so many countries?
Hanny: As a power metal band, when we started at the beginning it was just a project, we didn’t know what to expect. But we have always been about having a European sound, so we didn’t expect to get picked up by any labels or anything like that. Because our influences are very like new wave British metal, thrash and speed metal, which often lean toward the European side, bands like Helloween or Blind Guardian for example. It kind of fits. Sometimes people will think we are Austrian, not Australian, we have had that a lot as well in our earlier days.
Steph: And how did you come to be involved with Stormrider?
Hanny: Stu got in touch with me when he started his band up, Silent Knight. I caught them live and I liked the sound, and I get along with Stu very well, so that’s where it started from. They play the same style of music as us, they always stick to their style and we like to stick to our style too. We get along really well, he is a really top mate of mine. The guys like him too, he does really well. That’s how we got in touch, then we started playing shows together, they came to Melbourne and supported a few of our shows, and we actually played the first Stormrider Festival. It is good to be back for the 10th anniversary. It is going to be really cool and it is a nice lineup too. You have got some really cool bands. A lot of different styles. A lot of cool bands from Melbourne too that I know, Orpheus Omega, Elm Street and all those guys, Hybrid Nightmares. The whole bill is really, really good! Stu does a really good job.
Steph: You have mentioned some amazing bands, including Helloween and Blind Guardian, if you could have any five bands on a lineup, who would you choose?
Hanny: I would really love to see Randy Rhoads but unfortunately, he died when he was twenty-four. I would love to see Manimal. I have seen Manimal live already though, overseas, but they have never been part of an Australian festival. Would love to see them be part of a show. And of course, always Iron Maiden. I am a huge Iron Maiden fan. Black Sabbath, especially with Dio or Tony Martin. I am also a huge Ozzy Osbourne fan. I love Ozzy solo but when it comes to Black Sabbath, just love them with Dio or Tony Martin.
Steph: Whenever I have asked that question to some of the other bands on the Stormrider bill doing these interviews, those bands have appeared often – Dio, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Iron Maiden.
Hanny: I like that, that is really cool! It actually makes me really happy to hear that and hear people mention those names because like minded company. I will be seeing Iron Maiden when they come to Australia. Last time I went to two Melbourne and two Sydney shows, and I saw them in Germany as well. This time I will only get to two shows. I love Iron Maiden.
Steph: What is the reception like for metal in Germany?
Hanny: It can get pretty intense. The first time that we went to Germany was in 2005 for Headbangers Open Air festival that the Silent Knight boys went back for just recently. I remember just the noise and the movement on the stage and just the movement of the people, they were almost rocking you off the stage. It was like an earth quake! I thought ‘oh shit, I wasn’t prepared for this!’ You had to be careful that you didn’t slip off the stage when you were playing! It is always intense, and it is always great. I like to have a beer as well and just watch who else is playing too.
Steph: You mentioned that you are soon to be releasing your eight studio album. Will there be a live album somewhere down the track?
Hanny: Oh definitely, definitely. We have already got some takes from some previous tours and some videos, we just have to go through them all. Maybe we will release a collection for the twenty years! Some selections, maybe something like that will be good to do and maybe a follow up tour as well. It is definitely in the works.
Steph: If you could play any other instrument besides guitar, what would you like to play?
Hanny: Violin, that was what I first started on and I didn’t quite catch it. I played when I was quite young, about nine or ten years old. I just couldn’t get it at that stage, but I would like to learn something like that.
Steph: Have you tried to play Violin since playing guitar and do you just instantly turn it sideways?
Hanny: Not really but sometimes I will muck around if I see one and pluck the strings and stuff, play Crazy Train on it or something but it never really works. I would really like to tackle that one day though. I was always getting told by my sister or my brother ‘what is that noise?’
Steph: Most of the bands when I interviewed them from the lineup recently said they were most excited about seeing Black Majesty play at Stormrider, but is there any band in particular that you are excited about seeing?
Hanny: Definitely looking forward to seeing Silent Knight, that is always a great show and I always enjoy it. Elm Street, definitely Orpheus Omega and Hybrid Nightmares. It’s a good bill! And we are actually sticking around for two full days so we are going to watch every band. We arrive Friday morning and leave Sunday night. We are really looking forward to it, it is going to be really fun and Stu has done a fantastic job of organising it, the whole organisation of all of it. Just looking forward to a really happy gig, we haven’t played a gig in a while, so looking forward to the whole event, it is going to be great. We are looking forward to seeing all the bands play.
Steph: Thank you so much Hanny for being so gracious with your time and for granting me this interview!
Hanny: No worries, see you at Stormrider!
A big thank you to Hanny from Black Majesty and Stu from Stormrider Touring. Be sure to get along to Stormrider Heavy Metal Festival, happening Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th August 2024 at Amplifier over both nights, celebrating Stormrider’s 10 year anniversary. You can catch Black Majesty playing the Stormrider stage on the Friday night. Tickets available here.
You can follow Black Majesty: Facebook | Website | Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube |
Photos: Supplied by band
