Celesty

Celesty biography
1998-1999
Celesty was formed 1998 town called Seinäjoki in Finland. First line-up was totally different than today, only Ari Katajamäki and Jere Luokkamäki are left from those days. In the year 1999 Tapani Kangas joined the band as a guitar player this was the time when Celesty made their first demo in summer 1999, which was recorded only for themselves and wasnt released or sent anywhere. In a short time after that Ari, Jere and Tapani noticed the potential of the band, but knew that something had to be done, so they decided to sign off some members and they started to replaced them with new ones.
2000-2002
In the year 2000 Tapani and Ari went to the army and Celesty were still looking for a functional and first-rate line-up. In Spring 2000 Tapani found the young and talented guitarist J-P Alanen and he decided to join Celesty. J-P already knew vocalist Kimmo Perämäki, and the band asked him to join Celesty also. Kimmo joined, and finally in Autumn 2000 they booked a studio for their first real demo. The Warrior of ice demo was released in Spring 2001 and soon after the release Juha Mäenpää joined Celesty to play keyboards. After the first demo release, some very good reviews and a few gigs in Finland, Celesty began to sound familiar to peoples ears.
In March 2002 Celesty went into the studio to record their second demo at Fantom Studios. The Times before the ice demo got even better reviews everywhere, and record companies also started to contact Celesty. Celesty signed the deal with the Spanish record label Arise Records and right away in that same Autumn they entered Fantom Studios to record their debut album Reign of elements which was released worldwide in December 2002. Celesty appeared also on Helloweens The Keepers Of Jericho - A Tribute To Helloween Part II album playing the song The chance.
2003-2004
Many metal fans, Metal magazines and Metal Radio all over the world started to know the name "Celesty" and debut album got good reviews. Celesty was voted for the lists as "best newcomer band" in Metal Magazines and the album "Reign of elements" was voted for "best debut album in 2002" in some magazines also. Celesty did gigs in Finland and got great feedback from their great live performances. In Summer 2003 Celesty started to compose new songs for their second album. The new material was a bit different than before, and band found their own style of making songs. In autumn 2003, Celesty entered the studio to record their second album. They decided to record the album in peace so they kept a break from live performance and concentrate on the new album. The new songs were very aggressive and much darker than the material on "Reign of elements", the new songs were a combination of epic, dark, progressive but still melodic power metal, but added with that unique Celesty sound. Ari, Jere, Juha, J-P and Tapani were very satisfied with the new material but Kimmo wanted to do something else and Celesty had to find a new singer for the new album. Many singers from all over Finland were tested and finally Antti Railio (b. 1984) a singer from Vaasa turned to be the right choice and his voice was just the thing that Celesty were looking for. In May 2004 Arise Records released Celestys second album "Legacy of hate" and the album got great feedback in different metal magazines all over the world.
2005-Present
2M Production, label from Argentina asked if Celesty would like to participate in a new Megadeth Tribute called Hangar of souls. Celesty was very hounoured about this and they decided to record a one of the best known Megadeth song called -Holy wars...the punishment due- to the tribute. -Hagar of souls a tribute to Megadeth- was released in August 2005. Same time Celesty signed a new world wide record deal with German record label called Dockyard 1.
Celesty is composing new songs to their third album, which is met to release somewhere in Autumn 2006. During the composing work J-P Alanen noticed that his musical interests have been elsewhere for a long time and Celesty needs more participation and hard work from all the members. After small meeting of the band, it was very obvious that the bands long time friend, great guitarist and also good composer Teemu Koskela would join the band. Celesty also decided to stay out from live performance for a while because they wanted to concentrate fully to their third album composing work.