The Majesty Eternal - ETERNAL MAJESTY Interview! 7/20/14

Greetings!

On this gray and showery Sunday, it seemed appropriate to publish a black metal artist's interview.  EA Issue #1 featured two black metal bands (among other artists) so it's kind of like going back to my roots to feature a black metal artist.
The horde in question, Etermal Majesty, hail from France.  Read on - as is - from 2012.
Cheers!
Mark

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From War To Darkness - those in the underground know this release from the mighty Eternal Majesty (France)!  Having put out several demos, splits, and a live release prior - Eternal Majesty's first full length exploded on the scene back in 2003.  The follow up, 2006's "Wounds of Hatred and Slavery" showed a change in label and sound.  The last four years have been quiet on the Eternal Majesty front.  That is about to change!  - Interview by Mark

EA:  Greetings!  Instead of starting at the beginning, let's start with the present.  What is the current state of Eternal Majesty?  Are you still signed to Candlelight?  It seems after your sophomore effort, the band fell off the black metal map.  Please bring us up to date.

T:  Hi Mark!  Thorgon here.

Yes, we are very busy since this period with Candlelight records and we put EM on standby for different reasons.
Sagoth and I with our other bands, Martyr and Navint for other personal stuff.
I think we were also fed up with the Black Metal scene after recording the second album, but now after all this time we are ready to come back this year (2011) with a new record, nothing is signed for the moment so I cant tell you anything about the label.

EA:  After playing the shit out of "From War To Darkness", I found "Wounds of Hatred and Slavery" a bit of a let down.  There are moments where it sounds like Eternal Majesty to me but there are parts that are just uninspired.  When you look back on those two releases, now that some time has passed, what are your thoughts about both of them?

T:  The second album is less brutal and hateful than the first one, we wanted to make something more technical and more ambient than we did before. We also had problems during the recording and even today we are not satisfied with the "Wounds of hatred..." sound.
You can expect another evolution of the band for the next one.  We will see how people will react.  The only thing I can tell you is that we will not make the same mistakes that we did before for this new recording.

EA:  I understand that "From War To Darkness" featured re-recordings of demo material.  Is this correct?  Did that contribute to the change in sound from that release to "Wounds..."?  Did "Wounds..." feature any old material as well or was it all new compositions?

T:  Yes, that's right. All songs of "From War To Darkness" are old demo songs that we wanted to re-record in real studio conditions. We used to record by ourselves, and this is the first professional stuff out from the band. "Wounds of Hatred..." is composed of new tracks and 2 old tracks that we recorded one year before for the "Night Shadows" MCD.
For sure, composing new songs is the reason of Eternal Majesty's musical evolution.

EA:  In between your two full-length releases, you released a MCD "Night Shadows".  Was there any particular reason for releasing the MCD?  Was it to keep the Eternal Majesty name out there in the scene?  It seems the band could of waited and used some of that material on the "Wounds .." release.

T:  As I said before, we re-recorded two tracks from this MCD, "Don't Follow Me" and "Night Evilness".  This MCD was a manner to symbolize the desire of making and producing our music far from any trendy influences of the emerging black metal scene.

EA:  How did the band start in the early days?  Is it true that the band members are related (brothers or cousins)?  Has the lineup ever changed?  What were some of Eternal Majesty's early influences?

T:  Yes, it's true.  We are 4 blood brothers, and we started playing music together in the middle of the 90's.  The band's name and style changed 2 or 3 times to finally become Eternal Majesty.  The lineup never changed and will never change until we split.  Our early influences?  Dark throne, Emperor, Gorgoroth, Enslaved, Satyricon, Kult ov Azazel, Bathory, Mayhem, old Tiamat, and Moonspell.

EA:  Do you have any formal musical training?  How about the other members in the band?

T:  No formal musical training… we learned music by ourselves.

EA:  It's rather rare to see a band put out a live album prior to any full-length releases?  How did this come about?  Any plans to re-release the demos, split material, or the live album on CD?  I think there would be a demand for that in the underground.

T:  In those times, recording a live tape was just like recording a demo tape.  It was so difficult to record something in a studio that every material was good to spread your name and spread the Black Metal spirit.  This is how true underground music works…hardcore scene used to make the same.  For the moment no re-releases planned, a limited edition should stay limited, right?
If you really want old materials, most of our work is legally or illegally downloadable on the net, you can also check secondhand sites.

EA:  Back in the day, how important was playing live for the band?  The few videos I've seen you guys sounded monstrous live!

T:  Playing live was a real intense moment for us.  In those days, there were not so much shows than today, a Black Metal show was a real event!
Our last show was in 2003, and then we decided to stop.  Maybe the same desire of moving away from the scene for a while?
EA:  What is your personal ideology and that of Eternal Majesty?  Same?  Different?  Satanic?  National Socialist?

T:  Ideologies of the band are the same...anti religious. We never did Eternal Majesty for any political reasons.

EA:  With all of the mystique surrounding the French black metal scene in the earlier days (Les Legions Noires, etc), how does it compare to the scene now in 2010?

T:  I can’t tell you my feeling about the actual French scene because I don’t deal with it anymore.  The last person implicated in the scene I talked to was MKM (Aosoth/Antaeus) … not a really new-school guy!!

EA:  Are there bands that you feel warrant support - French or otherwise?

T:  We support the old ones we shared the stage and splits with: Antaeus, Aosoth, Temple of Baal, Merrimack, Krieg, Judas Iscariot…and other bands like Horna, Impiety, Kult ov Azazel, Mutiilation, Fornication, Thornspawn, Carpathian Forest…

EA:  Thank you for taking the time to do the interview.  Any last words?

T:  Hope you’ll be satisfied by my words and sorry again for not getting back to you sooner!
Thank you for the interview!
http:://www.muyspace.com/eternatlmajesty666

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