Ukrainian progressive metal band Majesty of Revival are back defying war and ugliness in the world with their new single and final single off their upcoming record “City Lights”. With four studio albums in their catalog and a bunch of performances and collaborations since their start back in 2009, they started recording their fifth record “Pinnacle” in 2020 amidst the pandemic and it’s finally ready to be released on the 10th of June 2022. We decided to have a chat with Majesty of Revival to get a sneak peek of “Pinnacle” and get to know them more.
- Listening to your music I hear a lot of heavy genres mixed together, so I wanted to know how you describe your sound?
Myroslav Danko: Never thought about it, to be honest. In the first place for us always was and always will be the freedom of creativity. We do our best to make music speak the way we want it to be spoken. And after that sound comes into play. There is no determined sounding throughout the whole album. So if it comes to describing it – I will go with a description like “supporting” because it is always on spot and enhances the main idea of the composition.
Dimitriy Pavlovskiy: Well, some years ago I called it “Crossover Rock” because we’re crossing over different genres, as we already did on previous albums. But nowadays it tends to be Progressive Metal. Just look at modern Prog Metal bands like Between the Buried & Me or Twelvefoot Ninja – musically they’re doing whatever they want. The only unifying label is Progressive Metal. We try to promote it under this genre.
- You started recording “Pinnacle” during a world pandemic and you are releasing it during a war that we all hope ends soon and wish you and your loved ones are safe and sound, can you tell us more about that unusual writing and recording process? and did it affect the record’s sound or concept?
M.D.: Thanks a lot for your support. Definitely, we had a hell of a time during these bloody 2 years. It doesn’t affect the process as it may seem. But really changes the ideas you come up with. When corona happened it brought isolation and much more sadness, endless self-digging. Maybe it is the cause of the melancholic vibe of some songs on “Pinnacle”. But when Russia invaded Ukraine and war has been started – all of it has gone like this. Almost like Covid never happened. But instead of it now we have only hate and rage, which add aggression to our songwriting drastically.
Check out “City Lights” review here.
- Listening to “City Lights” and seeing the artwork of “Pinnacle” gave me the feeling that this might be a concept album, can you tell us what’s the story behind it if I’m right? If I’m wrong what are the main ideas that “Pinnacle” discusses?
M.D.: Well, regarding the fact, that the main idea of every song is based on daily problems, that surround us or even happen to ourselves we can actually say that this is the conception. Different views on casual problems are based on personal experience. But it has become on itself, so we will let our listeners decide whether at conception or not.
- I just reviewed “City Lights” and was blown away by its sound. Can you tell us more about it? How did its writing process go and what’s behind its lyrics?
D.P.: Actually, the intro for this song was written somewhere in 2019. When we started composing sessions this intro popped up and we decided to make the song out of it. The intro was written during the night walk – I just coming home from a pub, the weather was nice and everything was calm (good old times before covid and war). It was really inspiring, I just heard completely everything and tracked a demo when I came to the studio. Then, I played the intro to our keyboard player Maestone and he immediately continued the song with that calm first verse. Then Myroslav came to the studio and come up with cool riffs in weird time signature 15/16. The chorus came up immediately, we just heard it in our heads. Then Maestone added keyboards around the whole song with a sick keyboard solo in the end – and here it is!
Tracking vocals for this song was a pain in the ass. Because of weird time signatures. It took me a damn month to figure out whatafak I need to sing here, haha! Lyrically this song is about the charm of the night city and the inspiration that comes during night walks! It is an escape from the interdictions of daily routine; an exaltation of endless discovery and joy in being alive – before the sun rises again, the nocturnal city awaits you.
- What’s your favorite song off “Pinnacle”?
D.P.: At the moment “Citylights”. But it changes from time to time, it depends on mood.
M.D.: “You Have A Message” and “Citylights”. But again, depends on mood!
- Who was involved in the production process of “Pinnacle”? Are there any guest appearances there?
D.P.: Mainly we did most of the production by ourselves. We already had a vision of how this album should sound musically and in terms of recordings. Kartsy Hatakka from Waltari did a guest appearance on “Fool” (he rapped on verses 1 and 2), David Readman from Pink Cream 69/Adagio on “Mindcrime”. Also, for the first time, we used a real trumpet on the song “Fool” (trumpet section recorded by famous Ukrainian trumpeter Vova Schobak)! Violin sections provided by Veronika Shestakova. To be honest, we decided to hire about 7 or 8 famous guest singers for this album at the beginning of the record. But then Covid happened, studios were not available and all the schedules were messed up – both our and guest musicians.
- Since “Pinnacle” is your fifth record, how did your sound change through these years? What makes each record off your catalog so far unique?
D.P.: Definitely YES! If you listen to each of our albums you’ll find out that every release sounds different. The first album is more neoclassical metal, the second one is mostly power metal, and the third one is a Progressive/Symphonic Metal mixture. Fourth opus is pure groove/prog metal. And Finally fifth album “Pinnacle” – is a mix of everything we did before!
- If you have to choose one song from your catalog to recommend to someone who wants to get into your music, which one would it be?
D.P.: Oh, what a question! If we look at our most popular songs on all the platforms – then it will be “Wolfheart”. But my personal opinion – “Deliverance”.
- What do you consider the highlight of your career so far?
D.P.: Producing this album? I think this album is a pinnacle of our carrier, it’s really sad that it came in such a turbulent times.
Before that, we had a hit album “Dualism”, it came in 2016, just before summer festival period, everything was nice. We did some shows, our label supported us and almost all the singles released from that album received massive airplay on radiostations.
- Any touring plans to support the release of “Pinnacle”?
D.P.: It would be amazing, to tour with this record. We did many rehearsals with the new material before the invasion – it sounds so good live! But man, in this situation, when one freak decided to destroy territories part of our country with the size of Italy or Greece… We have no touring plans at the moment, but we hope that all this nightmare ends soon and we play the hell out of this album around every city!
