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.

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