Norway's KEEP OF KALESSIN recently released their new digital EP, Introspection, available on all digital music services including iTunes, Spotify and WiMP. A 7" vinyl edition of the release will be available on June 1st in Europe. Limited to only 300 copies, the 7" will be available exclusively on the Keep Of Kalessin and Finntroll Tour until the release date.

Introspection is the first of several new EP's and singles that will be released throughout the year, in wait of the new album due in October. The new EP marks the transition from the old and into a new era for the band, with longtime main man Obsidian C. now also handling the vocal duties after the band separated from singer Thebon in March.

In addition to the new single 'Introspection', which was released with a video on YouTube just over a week ago, there are two new tracks on this EP namely 'Flight Of The Hatchling' and an extreme version of 'The Dragontower'.

Front man Obsidian C. comments on all three tracks: "The new digital era opens some opportunities for bands and releasing digital EP's makes it possible for such a diverse band as Keep Of Kalessin to release some tracks and new versions of tracks that would not necessarily fit on an album.

'Introspection' is a very personal song for me and deals with some issues I guess many can relate to when they start questioning themselves and what's really important in their lives. As a musician you're always sacrificing personal life for the band and lately I've been wondering if it's all worth it. Girlfriends, friends and family have always come second and I guess it's only natural that some priorities change as you grow older. So... basically I guess this is my midlife crisis caught on tape.

'Flight Of The Hatchling' is our first instrumental song and shows the band from a very different side. As the title suggests this is our own type of 'Flight Of The Bumblebee' kind of song, even though it's not a cover version, but a song entirely written by me.

We also added a version of 'The Dragontower', which I've wanted to release for some time now. The only change to this version is in fact how the drums are playing and shows that the song is very much Keep Of Kalessin and now sounding more like The Divine Land or Ascendant type of songs.

On Reptilian we had mostly blastbeat songs and the reason why we chose the "slower" version of 'The Dragontower' was simply to make it stand out and to give the album more diversity. The extreme version is the same tempo and same recordings as previously released except from the drum tracks which have been re-recorded with more of Vyl's furiosity."

Keep Of Kalessin released the new video 'Introspection' at the Indie Recordings Label Night at the Inferno Festival this Easter. Watch the clip below:

The band heads out to tour Europe in May with FINNTROLL. Dates include:

May

8 - Berlin, Germany - K17
9 - Vosselaar, Belgium - Biebob
10 - Dordrecht, Netherlands - Bibelot
11 - Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
12 - Paris, France - La Machine Du Moulin Rouge
13 - London, England - Underground

More on Keep Of Kalessin at this location.