Keep of Kalessin - Introspection – Single
Indie Recordings
Progressive/Melodic/Black Metal
3 songs (10'49'')
Release year: 2013
Keep Of Kalessin, Indie Recordings
Reviewed by Jared

In 2008 I was able to catch a concert with Behemoth in Columbus with Dimmu Borgir headlining. To my surprise, the most impressive band of the night was Keep of Kalessin who at the time was promoting their newest album Kolossus. It was my first exposure to the band, and since then, I’ve grown to like them quite a bit, especially when I took a first listen to Armada. Their latest full length release Reptillian created divided opinions, but the album was indeed an epic progressive black metal approach with many songs, and I did feel the album deserved more positive criticism than negative. Obsidian C. is the new front man, after the singer Torbjørn "Thebon" Schei had left this year, and is now taking on both the main guitar work and vocals. Out of curiosity and pure impatience, I took a listen to what Obsidian C has been up to with his short single Introspection, and it has me feeling rather excited.

There are only 3 tracks that make up the single. After viewing a short youtube self-documentary created by the man Obsidian C himself, he’s been working on his unique and Spanish sounding metal guitar riffs for the new album, but also taking the time to work on his body and mind to be refreshed for the writing of new material. The single Introspection is just a taste of what this man is capable of, and the melodic and progressive approach this time around is sounding very promising as well as his vocals. The song opens with a beautiful keyboard section filled with mysticism. The guitar work starts very chord driven but doesn’t take long to pound with drums and the quick riffing and lead style Obsidian C has been working on. His vocals are better than I was expecting, but more exciting was the take on of clean vocals that are just fantastic, and a good sound for the band. Hopefully there will not be too must of an absence of clean vocals once the new album is released.

A short two minute track called Flight of the Hatchling that follows is a completely instrumental track that showcases the talent Obsidian C has on the neck of the guitar. His quick rhythmic guitar strumming rarely lets up. The track is essentially one long solo, but a killer track nonetheless. The final track is a remake of song The Dragontower, which I admit I cringed when I first heard it on Reptillian. It was honestly one of the only downsides of the last album, but it has been redone of the Introspection single with a more extreme take on it. Blast beating was greatly emphasized this time with the remake, but it only felt slightly improved over the original.

Hopefully Obsidian C has recharged his batteries during his trip to Spain to come up with new material for his new album, because it has been far too long since Keep of Kalessin has released a full length record. Introspection is indeed a great track, and its epic setting and clean vocals is a good sign that good things are to be heard once the final product is complete.

Killing Songs :
Introspection
Jared quoted no quote
Other albums by Keep of Kalessin that we have reviewed:
Keep of Kalessin - Epistemology reviewed by Alex and quoted 63 / 100
Keep of Kalessin - Reptilian reviewed by Thomas and quoted 85 / 100
Keep of Kalessin - Kolossus reviewed by Ross and quoted 96 / 100
Keep of Kalessin - Armada reviewed by Alex and quoted 93 / 100
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