Black Majesty: Power Metal Royalty from Australia

Black Majesty: Power Metal Royalty from Australia

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, and formed in 2002, Black Majesty is a bonafide power metal institution. Over the years, they’ve released seven full-length albums and one best-of compilation, establishing themselves as a force within the genre. Throughout their journey, Black Majesty has played numerous live shows across Australia, including headline performances and tours with some of the world’s biggest metal acts, such as Helloween, Saxon, Blind Guardian, DragonForce, Symphony X, Edguy, and Paul Di’Anno, among many others. The band has also made its mark in Asia and Europe, performing at iconic festivals like Wacken Open Air, Masters Of Rock, and Headbangers Open Air, alongside numerous club shows, both as support and headliners.  Their latest magnum opus, Oceans of Black, has just been released via Scarlet Records, and it’s destined to become a classic with metal fans all over the world.  Highwire Daze recently interviewed two of the metal knights within the realm of Black Majesty to discuss their absolutely epic career in music.  Read on…

We are here with two of the members of Black Majesty. First of all, introduce yourself and tell me what you do in the band.
Hanny Mohammed: I’m Hanny, guitars and keyboards.

Clinton James Bidie: Clinton James Bidie, guitar.

Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title and song Oceans of Black?
Clinton: Yes. The overarching theme of the album is, I suppose, it’s resilience and it’s a journey and it’s about seeing positives.

Hanny: Going through a hardship and making it out.

Clinton: Yes. That’s what the Oceans of Black is. It’s an uncertainty, you’re out on there, but that’s what it is. It’s about being resilient.

Hanny: Yes. It’s pulling through.

Let’s talk about the first single, Dragon Lord, and the inspiration behind it.
Clinton: Well, the song, I think of it sort of like a short story, little comic book sort of a character. It’s like an episode. It’s about a character. It’s about a king who’s a good man but he’s sort of wrongfully betrayed. He’s sent down to the underworld, and then he finds strength. In his darkest hours, he finds strength and he rises up in true power metal style. It’s in the spirit of he’s got the strength of a mystical dragon, and he is the dragon lord. He’s got this newfound resilience. And then, he reigns terror down on his enemies. But anyway, it’s a comic book style story.

Hanny: And can I also add as well, actually, that was Clinton’s first ever track that he submitted to us, or his idea for making the track.

Clinton: This is my first album with the band.

Clinton, I think you also did the artwork for this. Tell me about the artwork and the inspiration behind it and give me a little background in your artwork.
Clinton: So, with the artwork, when we worked out, we were going to call the album after one of our tracks, and it was going to be Oceans of Black. I thought, “What could I show on an album?” Because I just didn’t want to do like a black album with nothing on it. That’s been done before. So, I thought, “How can I show the oceans of black?” So that’s what I did. So Black Majesty has like a mascot, a character. The Black Majesty was featured on all the albums. So, what I did was I wanted to have something familiar there. So, we had the Black Majesty character on the shore. She’s got her sword down, so she’s not there for battle but in the distance out over a sea, a rough sea, there’s like a pirate ship, a ghost ship coming back towards the shore. And I suppose I did that to sort of show it could be the same two parts of the same person. The character on the shore, and the ship is like coming back after a journey over the oceans of black, the uncertainty. And that’s sort of like the question, it’s coming home, coming back to the shore and maybe a bit smarter, a bit wiser, a bit stronger. That’s how I wanted to show it with the character on the shore facing out to the sea this ghost ship, pirate ship coming back to shore over a black moon, the moonlit sky. So that’s how I wanted to sort of show the journey and the resolve of that journey.

Clinton, how did you wind up in Black Majesty and what were you doing prior?
Clinton: I’ve got to say I’ve been playing guitar for a very long time, and I love playing guitar. I was a fan of Black Majesty from their first album, so I actually used to go to the gigs for many, many years. I know what it’s like to be in the audience screaming my lungs out along to the songs. So, I was working at home, and my wife actually saw the advertisement. Well, the news that Steve Janevski was leaving the band. My wife actually suggested that I audition, and at first, I was a bit reluctant because you just think, “Oh, I don’t know. I’m not good enough? Could I do it?” And my wife just sort of kept hounding me to do it. So, I auditioned. And I’ve met Hanny a couple of times over the years. The guys are very nice. They’re very approachable, easy to talk to.  When I had an audition, and apparently, they auditioned a few guitar players.

Hanny: We actually went through about 30 guitarists, wasn’t it?

Clinton: When Hanny told me the songs that I needed to learn for the audition, there were three songs that I didn’t know how to play, but I knew I’d played them a couple of hundred times each just as a fan. So, it was a song called Legacy from the first album, another song called Firestorm from the second album and Silent Company, the title track from the second album. So, I already knew how they should sound. Then I just went off and learned them. And then the audition was a lot of fun. I played for I think about 14 minutes and the rest of the time we were just talking. And then when I left, I said, “Oh my God, I got to play guitar with Black Majesty. And at least I can say I did that.” It was just amazing when Hanny gave me the call. It’s really a dream for me because I love this style of music. We’ve all got the same influences, so it was never really like I had to change anything. It just became really natural.

You’ve actually been signed to three really cool record labels and Scarlet’s awesome.
Hanny: Yes. We’re pretty happy go lucky. We’ve been happy with Limb. We were very happy with Pride & Joy as well. And so far, even in the first few months of getting to know the guys and working with them and finding out the way they work their marketing around and stuff like that, and how friendly and fun they are. We’re really happy. The vibe is so good. It’s actually very, very good. We’re really happy and we’re looking forward to the future.

You’re going to be playing with Vanishing Point. What are you looking forward to the most about that show?
Hanny: Oh, the fun. We had a lot of fun with the guys. We’ve been friends with them since we even began. I remember when we were Kymera, it was our first name and our first gig ever. Actually, they gave us the first show. We supported them. We just know each other really well. We always have fun. It’s almost like brothers more than anything. Definitely, it’s going to be a big night. Even on our own, we pull in good heads, but every time we’ve played together, it’s always been a sold-out show. So, we’re looking forward to mayhem and fun.

Has Black Majesty ever played here in the States or is that something you’d like to do?
Clinton: We would love to.

Hanny: We would love to. I’ll tell you what, in the past, there was a time that we were going to do a North and South American tour, and something happened between the promoters, and it was just a bit risky for us to take. We’ve got a lot of friends and fans from the USA. We would love to go. We’re always trying to find avenues to get there. So, we’d love to and hopefully soon.

We’re going to go back and celebrate some anniversaries of Black Majesty. All right. Let’s go back to 2015, 10 years ago, Cross of Thorns. When you look back on that album and the fact that it’s been 10 years, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
Hanny: Oh, the good memories from Cross of Thorns because I just think straight away, I remember that was Pavel, our first drummer, that was the last album he recorded on. He’s a great drummer, a good friend and stuff like that. We’re always in touch with him as well. We’ll have to go back and listen to it because actually, we’ve got the song Phoenix on our current set list. When I go back, it’s funny because I never listen to an album when we record it. It gets recorded and I don’t want to hear it anymore because you spend so many times hearing it, do you know what I mean? Then after 5 to 10 years, someone will be playing it or something, I’m thinking like, “Oh yes,” or we might do a song from the album, so I’ll have to listen to this track. And I’m thinking like, “Oh, actually, I enjoyed it more than I did back then.”  I can enjoy it now more than I did like 10 years ago is the best way I can explain it. I remember being very happy with it, but you got to put it to rest, put it in the closet and close the key. And I don’t want to hear it anymore because I want to concentrate on the next album. It’s always that kind of thing as well.

Let’s go back 20 years. We’re going to go to 2005 to the album, Silent Company. When you look back on that album and the fact that it’s been 20 years, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
Hanny: That’s a fan favorite, that album, and we always get reminded about it. But I just remember when that was released and the good memories of the feedback for that album.  And the song Silent Company is pretty special to us as well.

Clinton: I remember buying Silent Company and I remember listening to that. I bought it I reckon in August or September, I think. If I remember clearly, I remember buying the CD and I remember listening to that a lot. I was visiting my sister. She lived in Toronto for many years, so I went on a holiday for about five weeks to Canada. I played that album so much, Silent Company, the whole album.  And when I came back, they had the album launch in October, and I remember going.  And Vanishing Point played as well.

Hanny: Yes. We played together a lot of times.

Clinton: It was a huge night. I’m remembering it from a fan perspective. It was just a great night. It was just amazing how good the band sounded live and everything.

Hanny, you spent some time in Pegazus. What was that experience like?
Hanny: Well, to me, growing up in high school too, Pegazus will always be my favorite true metal band or traditional metal band or Australian traditional metal band. So, always a fan as well. And I knew Johnny Stoj well from the first band I joined, and we played together a lot. So, there was a time where their bass player had left and he’d left at a very crucial time, and they need someone just to fill in. So, of course, I said I’ll do it. And in the end, we had The Headless Horseman tour, which was a whole Australian tour. And then there were a few more shows after that. Johnny took his time finding a new member. I was there for nine months and we got really busy with Black Majesty. And at the time, I go, “Johnny, if I had the time, I would do it forever, but it’s just too much at the moment.” It was kind of sad as well, but we’re still great mates. So that’s the time I spent with them, which was really good. It was a really great experience. A lot of good memories from that. And actually, they released a DVD for that tour. I should watch that. I’ve never watched it.

Are either of you in any other bands or projects outside of Black Majesty?
Hanny: No, not at the moment.

Clinton: No, I’m not.

Hanny: I wanted to stay completely focused on the band at the moment too. There are lots of things. After this album, we want to organize the tours everywhere.

Do you have any messages for Black Majesty fans here in the States who are reading this now?
Hanny: Yes, definitely. Thank you very much for all your support. We get a lot of messages from people from the US, and we keep in touch with them as well. And we know we’ve been making you wait a long time, but sometimes it’s worth the wait.

Black Majesty is:
John Cavaliere – vocals
Hanny Mohamed – guitar, keyboards
Clinton James Bidie – guitar
Evan Harris – bass
Zain Kimmie – drums

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