About Celestia

Celestia is a black metal band from Avignon, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France formed in 1995 by Noktu. Nowadays Noktu is the only remaining original member. Celestia remained in the demo stage until around 1999 when they released the EP "A Cave Full of Bats" through Drakkar Productions with a line-up consisting of Noktu (vocals, bass) and Fureïss/Franck (guitar). A few more demos, singles, split albums and a live album were done before they finally released their first full-length album "Apparitia - Sumptuous Spectre" (2002) through Full Moon Productions with the drummer Astreyla added to the line-up. Neige (Alcest) was used as a live bassist at the time. The two main members of Celestia were Noktu and Fureïss. Fureïss was the only guitarist for Celestia from 1998 to 2005, i.e. from the promo tape « A Dying Out Ecstasy » (1998) until the second mix of the 2002 album « Apparitia Sumptous Spectre » in 2005 and he composed half the songs (the other half by Noktu) and arranged and recorded all the tracks on Celestia during this time. The current line-up is Noktu (vocals, guitar, bass) and Ghaast (guitar). With the drummer Astreyla, who left the band, they recorded Celestia's second album "Frigidiis Apotheosia : Abstinencia Genesiis" released in 2008 through Apparitia records and generally keeping the same minimalistic black metal sound. Malefic (Xasthur), a guest on the album, also added some keyboards to the music. Nowadays, various session drummers and guitarists are brought in for rehearsals, recordings and live shows. Noktu also owns a record label called Drakkar Productions, on which he released some of The Black Legions (a group of French underground black metal bands) albums. Noktu also played in the band Mortifera, doing guitar, bass and vocals, while Neige (Alcest) handled the drums, half of the vocals and composed tracks such as "Ciel Brouillé" and "Le Revenant". Mortifera has almost the same sound as Celestia. As well, Noktu has played in Genocide Kommando and Gestapo 666. In 2009, former guitarist Fureïss who is running the Rosenkrantz studio stated: "Contrary to certain rumours which appear periodically on the net, the album « Apparitia Sumptous Spectre » was recorded and mixed (in 2002) then remixed (in 2005) EXCLUSIVELY in the Rosenkrantz studio by Fureiss. The whole project was a still born disaster destined to be buried with complete indifference by a discerning listening public. I worked for 8 years with Celestia in an effort to promote their music. Why then does a member of the band want to make out that he is the only musicien and composer in the band?" on http://rosenkrantz.fr/ The members of Celestia played live for the two Mütiilation gigs in 2001. There is also a Visual Kei band with the same name.