Hi, Marcos. Thanks for having me! The reason for the delay is also very simple. We were getting burnt out. After many years of extensive touring and traveling, we needed a break to re-evaluate the band and our personal lives. We'd been putting in such enormous amounts of work and totally sacrificed our privatel and social lives for so long, without really obtaining the high goals we set for ourselves. So we changed focus for a while, a time-out, if you will. And, you know, after a little while you start to get hungry again. I guess it's like that when you have a passion. Sometimes you need space to breathe, but it will always come back to you. At least that's the case for us, and I feel we came out stronger in both ends. Personally and musically.

It means "the theory of knowledge" It's related to us in the sense that we will always look further.  Lyrically, musically and individually.

I'm sure it's not easy, but you can do anything you set your mind to. Obsidian decided to do the vocals before even trying. He just did it, knowing it was a huge task to do both guitar and vocals at the same time. He just jumped on it. We didn't even talk about bringing someone else into the band. It was never an issue.  We had a few (literally) rehearsals before he nailed it. I really thought it would take more time, but he surprised me there. And the vocals sounds great too, you know!

I really can't answer this one.

I'd say that we started a new chapter with Epistemology. Both musically and lyrically. The lyrics are as always diverse, and touch on many subjects, but we may not utilize the same metaphors as much as before. I think both the music and lyrics matured over the last five years. It's like a fresh start. And with a fresh start comes fresh ideas. The topics stretch from beliefs and philosophy to hard facts and science. And it's a deeper look into everything, as the name suggests.

We have always been searching for new ways for the music, without losing the core of what Keep of Kalessin is. It's an ongoing development. And I think we did sort of a breakthrough with Introspection. It was the first release as a three-piece, and it just felt right. It was a good indicator for the "new" Keep of Kalessin. Matured, re-vitalized and generally a step up. The decision that Obsidian would handle the vocals as well as guitars was decided around the time we recorded the single, yes. If I remember correctly, we shot the video for Introspection before the song was entirely done.

If I must compare I would say that Epistemology is a more mature album than Armada, Kolossus and Reptilian. We finally have the right sound and that special atmosphere that we've always been pursuing, that was present before but not to its full extent and potential. It is definitely a result of musical evolution, but also personal evolution, it goes hand in hand. And that proves that our brake was necessary. I'm not saying I'm unhappy with the other recordings, I'm proud of all of them,  but it takes a lot of time and trying and failing/succeeding to get to that point where all the pieces fall into place. And I feel that Epistemology marks such a point.

I can only answer on behalf of Headspin here. We have a full-length album laying on a hard-drive somewhere. It was recorded in 2007 I think. It's only lacking the vocal-tracks. We tried different singers but it didn't really work out, and it's just been laying there. I know what you all are thinking and me alike, "Why doesn't Obsidian do the vocals?" That's a great idea!!! Let's do it! So I guess we just have to get our finger out of our lazy ass and get to work.