Featured Artist
THY MAJESTIE
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Previously Featured Artists
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Compiled & written on June 30th, 2001
By EvilG
Take heed fans of epic / melodic / symphonic / Italian power metal - a
new band is rising. In a genre where more and more bands seem content to
copy off the pioneers, I believe Thy Majestie have the potential to come out on top.
Although we've had this band covered elsewhere in Metal-Rules.com in past month's, I thought it
was time to do a short feature on the band because they are great and as well, they deserve the
coverage!
Background
Thy Majestie was formed in 1998 by Giuseppe Bondě (keyboards) and
Claudio Diprima (drums). Later Maurizio Malta, Giovanni Santini, Michele
Cristofalo and Dario Grillo joined the band. In March 1999 they made their
first demo PERPETUAL GLORY that was well reviewed in all the Italian Metal
magazines. In August 1999 the band signed a contract with Scarlet
Records (Milan) that brought them to G.B. studios to record their
debut album. In place of Michele Cristofalo, the bass parts are featured
by Dario D'Alessandro, new bassist for band.
Musical Style
The band blend together power-metal, progressive rock, medieval, folk
& classical music. I bet Thy Majesty are SICK of reading about
themselves compared to Rhapsody...but it's inevitable. After all, how many
epic power metal bands can YOU name from Italy?? Despite this, they are
well on their way to having their own sound. The epic/symphonic
elements in Thy Majestie include choirs, flutes, orchestras, European folk
elements, operatic vocals and a storyline about the eternal fight between
good and evil. There is also the "hero" of the story - Arter, a
warrior, who has to bring back the peace to his reign. The album's
storyline was inspired by "The
Sword of Shannara" by author Terry Brooks. Below is a
picture of their album cover for THE LASTING POWER.
News Current To June 2001
Since the release of Thy Majestie's debut album, THE LASTING POWER, (which
you can order directly from us...plug plug) the band has been busy at
work preparing their next offering. According to drummer Claudio Diprima,
"in the next 2 or 3 weeks we'll release our new promo-cd entitled
simply "1066" - entirely self-produced (but it sounds very good,
sometimes better than "The Lasting Power." I recorded (except
for drums) and mixed all tracks ). It is a little preview of the next
album."
Thy Majestie's current label, Scarlet, have allotted the band just
three weeks studio time. As anyone who's heard the band's first album,
creating and recording something this layered and structured would
obviously take much more time.
Claudio assured me the sound/style for this next album will be
"more or less the same of the previous album but surely more
powerful, darker with great choirs. It will be another concept, but this
time based on an historical event - "The battle of
Hastings,1066". But without a good production it's only wasted work
."
As the history buff's amongst you are no doubt aware, The 1006 Battle
of Hastings is known as the final time that England was successfully
conquered by a foreign invader. The end result was the birth of a stronger
nation. More information can be found at you local library and at battle1066.com.
Some of the song titles that will probably appear on the next CD include
"A Warrior, A King", "Echoes of War", "Beyond the
Arrayments", " The Scream of Taillefer" and "Anger of
Fate". With tiles like that, fans are no doubt left drooling!!!
As for the orchestration elements which I LOVE, we will hear
"More, More, More and more choirs, but we'll use them in a different
way."
So that brings us up to date on the band. Of course you can read more
information on the band at their website at www.thymajestie.com.
There's also an interview I did
with Claudio a few months back which has a lot of information on the
band in it. Finally, if you are interested in picking up Thy Majestie's
debut album, THE LASTING POWER, you can do so right
here.
