BW&BK; has received the following press release:

With their debut album Ripples picking up one positive review after another, ASPERA, the young five-piece melodic progressive metal band from Skien, Norway, have added another song to their MySpace site. Alongside the album's title track, a special radio edit version of the song 'Traces Inside' has now been posted online, a song Atle Pettersen describes as "A very special song to us." When asked to elaborate, the vocalist explains that it was one of the first songs the band wrote for the album. "And it's one of the best, too, in our opinion!" To check out 'Traces Inside' go to this location.

The band have been pleased by both the consistently good press Ripples has so far received and also its imminent release. "We're so very excited about the release of the Ripples album at last," says Atle. "It's a dream come true to us. We have worked very, very hard for this. We can't count all the hours we have spent in the studio and in the rehearsal room to create Ripples... And now it's finally here! I hope everyone enjoys it as much as we do!"

Ripples is certainly going down a storm in Germany. "If those 5 youngsters keep going on that path they started with, we sure can expect a lot more great stuff in future..." says Metalreviews. In Musicheadquarters' opinion, "We might just witness the beginning of hopefully a big career. They certainly have my blessings, if they keep going with this expressive style...", and for Soundcheck Aspera are "Melodic Prog at it's finest...Absolutely cool Prog metal with hit potential."

North American orders for Ripples can now be done via CMDistro.

Following on from their album release shows at Smuget, Oslo on January 28th, and at Katakombene, Skien (a hometown show in support of cancer research) the following day, Aspera have just confirmed a show supporting ILLUSION SUITE on February 27th in Otta, Norway.

For further information and music samples, please visit www.myspace.com/asperaofficial and www.asperaofficial.com.