1998-1999Celesty was formed in 1998 in Seinäjoki, Finland. The first line-up was totally different than today, only Ari Katajamäki and Jere Luokkamäki remain from those days. In 1999 guitarist Tapani Kangas joined the band and at this time Celesty produced their first demo in summer 1999. This was recorded just for the band and was not released or sent anywhere. It did not take long for Ari, Jere and Tapani to notice the potential of the band; they knew that something had to be done, so they decided to change their line-up and sign on new members.
2000-2002In the year 2000 Tapani and Ari were called to the army and Celesty continued looking for a functional and first-rate line-up. In spring 2000 Tapani found the young and talented guitarist J-P Alanen who already knew Celesty vocalist Kimmo Perämäki, and the band asked him to join Celesty. 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 keyboardist Juha Mäenpää joined Celesty. Excellent reviews were received after the first demo release, excellent reviews AND a few gigs in Finland, Celesty began to be noticed, people were becoming familiar with the Celesty sound. In March 2002 Celesty went to record their second demo at Fantom Studios. The Times Before the Ice demo got even better reviews everywhere, and record companies started contacting Celesty. Celesty signed the deal with the Spanish record label Arise Records and immediately that same autumn they entered Fantom Studios again this time to record their debut album Reign of Elements which was released worldwide December 2002. Celesty appeared also on Helloween’s The Keepers of Jericho - A Tribute to Helloween Part II album playing the song The Chance.
2003-2004Many metal fans, Metal magazines and Metal Radio all over the world began to notice the name "Celesty" and the debut album got great reviews. Celesty was voted for the lists as "best newcomer band" in Metal Magazines and the album "Reign of Elements" was voted as the "best debut album in 2002" in some of these magazines. Celesty performed gigs in Finland and received amazing 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 metal. In autumn 2003, Celesty again entered studio to record their second album. They decided to record the album in peace so they kept a break from live performances and concentrated totally on this 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 compiled with that unique Celesty sound. Ari, Jere, Juha, J-P and Tapani were very satisfied with the new material but Kimmo wanted to take another direction in his career and Celesty had to find a new singer for the new album. Singers from all over Finland were auditioned and finally Antti Railio (b. 1984) a singer from Vaasa was the right choice, his voice was perfect, just what Celesty was searching for. In May 2004 Arise Records released Celesty's second album "Legacy of Hate" and the album received remarkable feedback in numerous metal magazines around the world.
2005-20072M Production, label from Argentina asked if Celesty would like to participate in a new Megadeth Tribute called Hangar of Souls. Celesty was very honoured at this and they agreed to record one of the best known Megadeth songs, -Holy Wars...The Punishment Due-for the tribute-. Hagar of Souls a Tribute to Megadeth- was released in August 2005. At the same time, Celesty signed a new world wide record deal with German record label Dockyard 1.Celesty continued composing new songs for their third album, which was to be release somewhere in autumn 2006. During the composing work J-P Alanen noticed that his musical interests had been elsewhere for a long time and Celesty needed more participation and hard work from all the members. After short meeting of the band, it was very obvious that Celesty’s long time friend, great guitarist and also awesome composer Teemu Koskela would join the band. Celesty also decided to stay out of live performance for a while because they wanted to concentrate totally on composing their third album.In the year 2006 Celesty went once again to studio to record their 3rd album. "Mortal Mind Creation" was recorded by Sami "Hannu" Koivisto at Martin Kantola Audio during the summer of 2006. The album was released in Europe October 23rd, 2006 and in Japan October 23rd, 2006. Celesty also used outside producer Arttu Volanto on the "Mortal Mind Creation" recordings. This album was praised by Critics who thought Celesty managed to create and bring something new to their power metal sound and songs. Early in 2007 Celesty signed a management deal with Manager Mika Karhumaa and the Sam Agency booking agency. During 2007 Celesty performed in a lot of gigs all over Finland and began to prepare to their fourth album. For the first time in Celesty's history they began working on the new album and songs with the same members as the previous album. But in the midst of gigs and song writing Celesty had to change their label. Dockyard1 didn't feel Celesty was what they were looking for. In autumn 2007 legendary Finnish label Spinefarm Records started to show interest in the band and was anxious to hear the new songs.
2008-PresentSpinefarm liked and signed Celesty, and in summer 2008 Celesty began recording the next album "Vendetta" at Fantom Studios. New material was more like Celesty’s second album "Legacy of hate" only now it included an even more Symphonic and progressive edge. Since the early days Celesty's biggest dream was to have a real Symphonic Orchestra and choirs in their music and now it was happening, because all the negotiations with Spinefarm was going very well. In spring 2008 Celesty met Kalevi Olli who was very interested in arranging the symphonic orchestra and choirs into the new Celesty's songs. Kalevi heard a few of the new songs and it was enough for him to notice that this band really could create great music. Celesty spent their whole summer in studio recording and when Samu Oittinen began mixing this album in December 2008 there was over 300 tracks recorded for each song. This amount of tracks was very challenging for Samu and it took a bit of time to mix the album. Finally in March 2009 "Vendetta" was released in Finland and Japan and the album hit the Finnish chart position # 30 of all albums released not just metal. These were all bands in top 40. Celesty also made their first official music video from the song "Fading away". Album "Vendetta" was released in Europe 11th of May through Spinefarm UK and 9th of June in USA, through Spinefarm US/Fontana. Fans and critics continue to send excellent feedback for this album.