Thy Catafalque was born in 1998 in a small town of Hungary playing traditio… Read Full Bio ↴Thy Catafalque was born in 1998 in a small town of Hungary playing traditional, epic black metal in the beginning by tamás kátai (Gire) and János Juhász. Just after their first and only demo KaOtic Productions decided to release their first album in 1999 entitled 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 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 into Hungarian and music turned out to be the most diverse and atmospheric experimentum coming out from the band. Cosmic music from micro to macro, from matter to spirit and then back into the ashes.

This world is about to be painted by more vivid colours in the latest release entitled Róka Hasa Rádió released by Epidemie Records on the 12th of May, 2009 and in November 2009 by Soyuz Music. The main concept behind the album is the relationship between the ever evolving, solid and massive physical matter and the fragileness of human and all living spirits throughout distant childhood memories and scientific explanations of nature. Revolving, rotating movements of past and future, colours, sounds, long lost scents by a strange transmission from a timeless radio.

After the very well appreciated Róka Hasa Rádió album, in 2010 Epidemie Records decided to print a re-issue of previous recording of Thy Catafalque entitled Tűnő Idő Tárlat. It was originally released by the band itself in 2004 in a very small scale. Limited to 500 pieces of beautful digipak, the music is untouched while the artwork is renewed.

In 2011 Thy Catafalque signed to Season Of Mist. The fifth album entitled Rengeteg was released on 11 November 2011 in Europe and 10 January 2012 in North-America. All the instruments have been reccorded by Tamás Kátai alone this time, as János Juhász left the band in 2011. Guest musicians: Attila Bakos (Woodland Choir, Taranis) - all clean male vocals, Ágnes Tóth (The Moon And The Nightspirit) - female vocals, Mihály Simkó-Várnagy - cello.

In October, 2015 Season Of Mist releases the band's sixth album, Sgùrr in vinyl and 36-page digibook CD.

In November, 2015 Blood Music re-releases Cor Cordium (Demo), Sublunary Tragedies and Microcosmos as The Early Works in 3xCD and limited vinyl box-set edition.

Line up:
Tamás Kátai - vocals, keyboards, guitar bass, programming (Gire, Nebron, Darklight, Gort, Towards Rusted Soil)

Discography:
1999 Cor Cordium (demo)
1999 Sublunary Tragedies
2001 Microcosmos
2004 Tűnő Idő Tárlat
2009 Róka Hasa Rádió
2011 Rengeteg
2015 Sgùrr
2016 Meta
2018 Geometria
2020 Naiv
2021 Vadak

Erdgeist
Thy Catafalque Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Arcán gyász hamuja
Arcán láz tüze
Alszik a világ
De nem alszik a Föld

"Nyargalj, jó lovam
Éji rengeteg nem rémít minket
Fagyos a völgy

És óriások a tölgyek

Vágtass paripa
Égre ne nézz
Urad dúlt szívében
Most a hideg hold

Föld szelleme, legkegyetlenebb
Megtalállak sajgó sebbel
Vedd rongy húsom
Mert a lelkem el nem érheted!"

Kardot rántani a sors ellen
Vakmeroség avagy kétségbeesés?

Isten vétkét ki teheti jóvá
A legrettenetesebbet...?

Overall Meaning

The opening lines of "Erdgeist" by Thy Catafalque are poetic and heavily symbolic. "Arcán gyász hamuja, arcán láz tüze" can be translated to "Ash of mourning on its face, fire of fever on its face". This may represent the duality of a person's emotions during a trying time, feeling both sadness and anxiety. The second line, "Alszik a világ, de nem alszik a Föld" or "The world is sleeping, but the Earth is not sleeping", suggests that nature is constantly active even when humans are not. This could symbolize the unstoppable and eternal power of nature.

The rest of the lyrics are a dialogue between two figures riding through the night. They are traveling through a cold valley with towering oaks, trying to outrun the chill and the moon that has gone cold. The rider urges his horse onward, admonishing it not to look at the sky, and speaks of his lord's heart that has been struck by coldness. The second speaker is identified as the cruellest spirit of the Earth, and they vow to find each other. The final lines, "Kardot rántani a sors ellen, vakmeroség avagy kétségbeesés? Isten vétkét ki teheti jóvá a legrettenetesebbet...?" or "To draw a sword against fate, is it bravery or desperation? Who can atone for the most horrible crime of God...?" leave the listener with a haunting and open-ended question.

Line by Line Meaning

Arcán gyász hamuja
Ashes of mourning on its face

Arcán láz tüze
Feverish fire on its face

Alszik a világ
The world is sleeping

De nem alszik a Föld
But the Earth doesn't sleep

Nyargalj, jó lovam
Gallop, my good horse

Éji rengeteg nem rémít minket
The night forest doesn't frighten us

Fagyos a völgy
The valley is freezing

És óriások a tölgyek
And the oaks are giants

Vágtass paripa
Hurry up, horse

Égre ne nézz
Don't look up to the sky

Urad dúlt szívében
In your master's broken heart