Thy Catafalque is an avant-garde metal band from Hungary. It was formed in 1998 as a duo of two former Gort (3) members: Tamás Kátai and János Juhász.
János Juhász left in 2011, and since that time Thy Catafalque has been a solo project of Tamás Kátai.
The band was born in 1998 in Makó, a small town of Hungary playing traditional, epic black metal by Kátai Tamás (Gire) and János Juhász. Just after their first and only demo KaOtic Productions decided to release their first album in 1999, titled Sublunary Tragedies, followed by the second record Microcosmos in 2001.
Throughout the passing years the music became more and more experimental with deep touches of electronic and folklorish influences feeding from their homeland in Central Europe. Meanwhile their label KaOtic Productions ceased to exist, so the third album Tűnő Idő Tárlat (An Exhibition of Vanishing Time) came to sunlight as a self-financed production in 2004. By this time lyrics turned to Hungarian and music turned out to be the most diverse and colorful experiment coming out from the band. Cosmic music from micro to macro, from matter to spirit and then back into ashes.
This world is about to be painted by more vivid colors in Róka Hasa Rádió released by Epidemie Records. The main concept behind the album is the relationship between the ever evolving, solid and massive physical matter and the fragility of human and all living spirits throughout distant childhood memories and scientific explanations of nature.
In 2009 Róka Hasa Rádió was licensed by Soyuz Music for distribution in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
After 6 years, in 2010 Tűnő Idő Tárlat was re-released in digipak CD format by Epidemie Records without any remastering.
In 2011 Epidemie Records re-released Róka Hasa Rádió in jewel-case format.
János Juhász had left the band before the album "Rengeteg" was written and recorded.
The band published "Sgùrr" in 2015 and "Meta" in 2016 with Tamás remaining the only member. In the meanwhile, he moved to Edinburgh, Scotland.
Now Tamás is residing in the capital of Hungary, Budapest. Thy Catafalque has been joined by live members and can frequently be seen on stages in Hungary and at times abroad too (Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Slovakia...)
Hungary· Makó