Norway's Keep Of Kalessin has released a new Ep, "Introspection", via all digital music services, including iTunes, Spotify and WiMP.

"Introspection" is the first of several new Ep's and singles that will be released throughout the year prior to the arrival of the band's new album in October. The new Ep marks the transition from the old and into a new era for the band, with mainman/guitarist Arnt "Obsidian C." Grønbech now also handling the vocal duties after the band parted ways with singer Torbjørn "Thebon" Schei in March.

In addition to the title track, "Introspection", for which a video was released on YouTube just over a week ago, there are two new tracks on the Ep: "Flight Of The Hatchling" and an extreme version of "The Dragontower".

Comments Obsidian C.: "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 will embark on a tour of Europe in May with Finntroll.