Infernäl Mäjesty – “We know we’ve sold lots of copies of ‘None Shall Defy’ and believe me, we haven’t even made any money from it yet.”

One of the biggest names in underground Metal is perhaps Infernäl Mäjesty from Canada. Recently they released their third album (which is quite an achievement if the first album is released in 1986) ‘One Who Points To Death’ which was rather a step towards their cult debut ‘None Shall Defy’. About the struggles and what caused all the delay on this album in particular, and the band in general, we had the chance to ask Kenny Hallman…

First of all, my newly designed least productive band of the century award goes to you: your first studio-album in 1986, the next one in 1998 and now already a third album in 2004. At least you took your time to come up with something you must really stand behind the full 100%…
Thank you…. we accept the award. We’ve always had something happen that would screw things up but we are still here. We never had support from labels that we were within the past so Steve and I ended up paying for all the Infernäl Mäjesty recordings over the years and it’s not cheap.

Isn’t this slow rate of releases a bit dangerous for the band: I mean, after so many years people might think Infernäl Mäjesty has called it a day, especially as you exist for almost 20 years…
We wish that we had 10 albums out by now but that’s not the case. We never really went away since we did keep on playing live a lot in Canada over the years. If I could change things, I would, but there is nothing we can do about it now. I can tell you that Infernal Majesty won’t be going away anytime soon.

In our interview from 1999 you state that 75% of the new material was complete: in January 2003 the news was spread that the album was ready: what did happen in those three years: was the last 25% so hard to write or have certain songs been replaced in the meanwhile?
It all came down to money. Steve Terror and I have paid for all of our recordings in the past and it’s expensive. We really wanted to have it out earlier but it was unavoidable. We also had to pay for all the artwork and we had to have it mastered before it was released. After we had our North American deal with Galy records, we signed with Black Lotus so there was legal stuff that had to be signed before it could be released.

Which songs did not make it to ‘One Who Points To Death’ and what happened to those songs?
We had a lot of stuff that we didn’t use but you’ll be hearing most of it on the new CD when we record in 2005.

Why did you choose to sign up with Black Lotus Records?
We signed first with Galy Records and gave them the rights to North America only and they knew that we wanted to have a different label with bigger distribution to handle Europe and the rest of the world and that’s why we signed with Black Lotus, they had exactly what we were looking for. Both labels have been good so far and both labels know of the troubles that Infernal Majesty has had with labels in the past.

So far all your albums were released on different labels: for how many albums is this deal?
We are with Black Lotus for 2 albums and if everything works out as good as we hope then we will re-sign with them for more.

Has it been a handicap in the band’s history that all albums have been released by different labels: a lack of continuity so to speak?
Well, it didn’t help us. We were promised so many things from labels but when it comes to living up to it they fail and of course we feel ripped off – this is why I really didn’t care to sign a full record deal with anyone that didn’t let us own the masters and have total control of the recording. So many bands get ripped off, you sign a deal with Whoever Records for 3 albums and 5 years and hope to god they tell you the truth on your sales and how much they owe you. We know we’ve sold lots of copies of ‘None Shall Defy’ and believe me, we haven’t even made any money from it yet. These are all things that we are now trying to found out.

If I take the first questions in this interview together, it seems like it was really a hard job to get ‘One Who Points To Death’ released…
No, it wasn’t hard to get it released, it was just trying to get the right people to release it.

I’ve read that it was hard for you to get a decent drummer that could come up to the band’s standards. Recently I heard of fellow Canadians Frozen Shadows, who also needed a lot of time to find a suited drummer. How is that possible in the land of the lumberjacks?
When we first met Kris, we knew right away that he would be the new drummer for Infernäl Mäjesty, of course it’s important to be a good musician but personality is just as important. I mean we could have the greatest drummer on the world but if he’s a complete asshole then what’s the point of having him in the band?

Apart from the fact that Kris DeBoer is a name that might have a Dutch origin; how hard was it to get him into the band? He is an real asset to the band and its sound!
Kris was a fan of Infernäl Mäjesty before he joined so him joining us was easy. He liked what Infernäl Mäjesty was all about so he was really happy about joining us.

In a way Infernäl Mäjesty has never taken the evil image that seriously; is that why you came up with the title ‘Virgin Blood Tastes Purest At Night’?
You’re right, we never took the evil image seriously, we just like having interesting subjects for our songs. The titles just come up as we write the lyrics, I guess if you read the lyrics you’ll see how we came up with the titles.

When Infernäl Mäjesty started, the satanic image was never taken too much seriously. Yet nowadays there are bands that take that concept way more serious then everybody did back then in the eighties. Haven’t you ever considered of shaking off that image a bit to avoid being compared to such acts?
No…It has never bothered us. We’ve been this way since day one. We’ll wear what we want, look the way we want, because that’s us, I don’t need to have people tell us how to be. Sure some people couldn’t figure us out at the beginning, but in the end it’s the music that counts.

Or is it perhaps a simple matter of I won’t sing songs about fuckin’ tree-hugging-hippies while playing intense Death/Thrash metal?
Ha ha – that’s funny, maybe we will write a song about it.

What does ‘Hysterion Proteron’ stand for? Who comes up with such a tongue-killing title…
That song is about the Witch Trials that happened in Salem. Like I said we just come up with the titles as we write them.

My biggest point of criticism (and of some others) is that the bass has been mixed in very prominent; why did you choose to do so?
You can always turn down the bass…

What song are you most proud of on this last album and why?
I think that ‘Death of Heaven’ is the song that most people will say sounds like old Infernäl Mäjesty as it has all the classic Thrash parts in that song. I really couldn’t tell you want song represents our new sound as they all have a different feel to them. We’ve been around for a while and we’ve always wanted to progress with the times and I get a kick out of people trying to figure out which way we are heading.

How hard is it to have a cult album out like ‘None Shall Defy’? Any album afterwards is always compared to that one, no matter how good it is on its own. How do you look upon that?
We get asked this all the time, who knew that ‘None Shall Defy’ would become a cult classic? When it first came out no one went nuts over it, it took years to gain the respect that it did. Sure, it was a great album for us at the time and everything we do will be compared to it no matter what and I can live with that – thank god our first album wasn’t a piece of shit.

Somehow you must also feel the importance of that debut: when visiting the Infernäl site my welcome comes from ‘Overlord’: To stand against evil means you stand alone… Why not put a strong one-liner from the new album online as the band’s motto?
That saying has been with us from the beginning and it will stay with us until the end.

In the beginning of the band it was hard to get Infernäl Mäjesty over to Europe, because there were so many attributes and stuff needed for the stage show. Now in a paper zine I read that the last time the reason was due to visa problems… When all is cleared, when will the Europeans finally be ready to witness the Infernäl Roadshow?
Yeah… we applied to late to get our visas so we had to put our European tour on hold. We have rescheduled it for the beginning of 2005.

Any tips of which songs to expect live: an emphasis on the first and third album is most obvious…
We always do ‘None Shall Defy’ and ‘Night of the Living Dead’ from the first album and we always play ‘One Who Points To Death’ and ‘Death of Heaven’ from the latest album. We change up the rest of the set every night so you never know what you’ll hear on any given night. We let Chris Bailey do the song list as it is his voice and sometimes he can’t do certain songs if his throat is 100%.

You have played with both the more modern death metal bands like Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral, with lesser known acts such as Dead Jesus, yet also with other veterans like Anvil, Razor and Exciter: which shows did you like best and why?
Cannibal Corpse was the best. But we have enjoyed all the bands that we have played with over the years.

I’ve read that you are already working on the new album which you want to record next spring: isn’t that a bit fast regarding the tempo of releasing so far…on the other hand, it took a lot of time before ‘One Who Points To Death’ was finally released…
Well we don’t want to wait another 6 years for another Infernäl Mäjesty album. The new songs are 90% done so we might as well go into the studio and do it. The new songs are killer and I know that will be playing them live on our next tour. We did play one of the new songs (‘Blood Bath Ritual’) on our Canadian tour.

Sometimes I use a one-liner as the title for an interview, yet now already I’m having something in my mind Better late than never; the recognition for your debut, the release of this album, the planning of a tour across Europe. Better late than never seems a bit as if it could be Infernäl Mäjesty’s motto… Please your comment about this!
Sounds good to me. But I would add …and not going away anytime soon.

Anything I have forgotten to ask or otherwise final words you wish to pass on to our readers?
Infernäl Mäjesty is back and won’t be leaving anytime soon. Enjoy the CD ‘One Who Points To Death’ and keep an eye on tour dates in your area.