It’s been a while since we’ve heard from cult Death/Trashers Infernäl Mäjesty. Just to check out what they’re doing at the moment, I decided to get in touch. After a few e-mails between me and the very friendly guitar player Kenny Hallman, here are the answers to my burning questions…
Kenny, what have Infernäl Mäjesty been up to in the past year?
We’ve been looking for a new drummer since we did the Cannibal Corpse tour in October ’98, as Collin Furness was only a temp that we had hired for the tour. We now have a new drummer, Graham MacSkimming who had played with the two founding members of Annihilator (John Bates and Dave Scott).
We are working on new songs for our newest CD entitled ‘The History of Hell’ with him as well as older material so we can get back out and tour.
Could you tell us something about the new material?
We’re working on it right now, 75% of the material is complete. It will be a lot more like ‘None Shall Defy’ as the lyrics will pertain to Hell. Since Graham has joined us the new material has really gotten his own life as Graham’s a really technical drummer and has added some stuff that is truly awesome.
On your home page you claim to release a live album. I haven’t seen it yet. Why is that?
We have the live CD in our hands, it was recorded in Europe. We’ve had offers from labels to release it but we have turned them down as we will release it ourselves. We decided that it will be released on the internet, through MP3.com, our website and at live shows. We really don’t want the live CD in stores at the present time as it’s more of a keepsake for fans who know who we are.
Your home page has a direct link to the home page of the new band of some ex-members. Are you still good friends?
Yeah, we’re still good friends. I’m mainly in touch with Rick Nemes (former drummer) as I try and help out his band Castle of Pain in any way that I can.
I saw you live in Europe with Cannibal Corpse. You played a really short set. Why was that?
I don’t know….sometimes it’s the way we are slotted in the set, if you’re on first you only get 30-40 minutes but if you get slotted second you get more time. Also if the show starts late then everyone has to cut back on their time. Our tour manager handles that stuff, and it’s up to him as many cities in Europe have curfews on shows that have to end at a certain time.
Infernäl Mäjesty never got the recognition it deserved. What are your feelings about that?
I wish that our first label, Roadrunner Records, had promoted us more, without a lot of promo you really have a hard time getting any type of recognition. If they had promoted Infernäl Mäjesty from the start who knows where we would be today. But we are still happy to be around after all the shit that has happened to us in the last 10 years.
What is the difference between the metal scene of the 80’s and the metal scene of the 90’s, according to you?
There’s a lot more to choose from today than in the 80’s. There’s a lot of good bands out there now that interest me, but I still like the older bands like Slayer and Mercyful Fate. I find that in Europe the Metal scene is still huge while here in Canada there isn’t one really.
Would you say Infernäl Mäjesty has a stable line-up now?
We’ve had a stable line-up for the last 4 or 5 years, the only real problem has been drummers. Kevin Harrison (our last drummer) is still in contact with us, and he’s basically packed in the drums.
What is the most memorable moment of your career?
Doing our last European tour with Cannibal Corpse and Dark Funeral. That tour took us to cities that haven’t had Metal in years and for us to be part of that was awesome. The fans in the eastern block of Europe were so thrilled to have a tour come to their city even with all the political and financial problems that they have.
Could you cough up some weird tour stories?
Too many to mention, every night something happens, and believe me, when you live on a tour bus for six weeks weird things happen all the time.
What would you like to say to the European fans?
Thanks for supporting Infernäl Mäjesty for all these years as without you guys there wouldn’t be much point in carrying on. Should be there in the early part of next year so we’ll see you all then. If you want to get hold of us or know what we are presently doing you can go to our website or you can e-mail me directly and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
