contact: m.malta77(at)yahoo.it

(at) = @


 Hello to everybody, my name is Maurizio Malta, and I’ve been proudly playing with Thy Majestie ever since this band was born. I started to play guitar at the age of 16, quite late in my opinion. I was struck when I first heard a song of Dire Straits, because I got impressed by Mark Knopfler’s way of playing and so I decided to buy an electric guitar and start my path. Before guitar I had many passions, soccer, martial arts and lots of other sports that I practised more or less. How did I decide to play heavy metal? Well, I must confess that I hated metal, but one day a friend of mine lent me a Metallica cd (the Black album) and I immediately appreciated its sound so hard and impressive, but I definitely decided to play heavy metal when I first listened to Yngwie Malmsteen’s Trilogy…wow I can remember I got absolutely shocked at listening those incredibly fast solos, and I also remember I couldn’t believe that a guitar could be played this way, in short Yngwie let me change “guitarism” to hard and heavy styles, though I still appreciate Mark Knopfler’s songs and styles, one of my favourites guitarists in all the world.
Once I, say, learned to play a little I joined several bands playing rock music, just like Guns ‘n’ Roses, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Doors and many others even if I was inclined to heavy metal. In January 1998 I met Roberto Bondì (Giuseppe’s brother), and he made me a proposal: “Do you want to join a power metal band?” “Certainly yes “ I replied, and so he introduced me to the very former bassist of the band Massimo Renna, who gave me an appointment to rehearse…and so my adventure with Thy Majestie began. At first we didn’t have a name, and I suggested Thy Majestie, but Majestie (old and middle English) could be mispronounced in a more French style, so we changed in Majesty (modern English), but during the recording sesseion of The Lasting Power we found up that another band had the same name so we turned again to Majestie.
About me? I was born in October 30th 1977 in Palermo and I still live there. I had my education there and I’ve got a degree in modern languages with specialization in English, but I can also speak French, a little Spanish and just two or three words and expressions in German, that I would learn if only had I time to. However I’m very interested in languages in general, I love them and I get a lot of fun when I go somewhere around Italy and listen to the dialect or accent of that place and try to reproduce it. I don’t have a hobby in my free time, even though I tried several times to get one but none seems to be so interesting to me except the English language, so when I have time I read books, but linguistics books mostly, although I don’t dislike novels and essays. I also love paintings, but unfortunately I haven’t a particular culture about that, but I can freely say that if I could I would live inside the famous National Gallery of London, which I visited in 2006 and by which I remained thoroughly impressed! I also love London city, I’ve been there twice and I’ve fallen in love with it, if you haven’t visited it yet I strongly suggest you to go, you won’t be sorry…I have a slogan that I always repeat: “When a man is tired of London he’s a man tired of life”, Samuel Johnson said this.
In the evenings, I like going out with friends and have a beer, talk to them, joking and so on and I’m a strong supporter of the thesis “a few friends, but good”, I think that’s the best way to get fun. I don’t like too crowdy places, except when I perform with Thy Majestie…I love the audience freaking out!!!
 
My set-up:

1 ESP MII Deluxe, with Seymour Duncan pick-ups (JB bridge – Hot Rails neck), with ash body and rosewood fingerboard, original Floyd Rose.
1 ESP MII Standard, with Seymour Duncan pick-ups (JB bridge – 59 neck), with alder body and maple fingerboard, original Floyd Rose.
1 Jackson DK1 Blue Ghost Flames, with EMG 81 – 85 active pick-ups, alder body, ebony fingerboard, original Floyd Rose.
1 ENGL Savage 120 head and an ENGL 4x12 speaker with Vintage Celestion 30
1 HUGHES & KETTNER Tour Reverb 100 watts head.



My top ten of favourite Cd's

1) Stratovarius : Episode
2) Stratovarius : Vision
3) Symphony X : The divine wings of tragedy 
4) Megadeth : Rust in peace 
5) Iron Maiden : Seventh son of a seventh son
6) Shadow Gallery : Carved in Stone
7) Steve Vai : Passion & Warfare
8) Yngwie Johann Malmsteen: Eclipse
9) Cacophony : Speed Metal Symphony
10) Dire Straits : On every Streets

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