German symphonic metal act Xandria will release their new EP Fire & Ashes worldwide on July 31. The cover art was created by Felipe Machado, known also for his works with Rage, Blind Guardian, Iron Savior, and Rhapsody Of Fire.

Three brand new songs will be featured on the EP, “Voyage Of The Fallen”, “Unembraced”, and “In Remembrance”.

In addition, they have re-recorded two all-time favorites of Xandria fans, “Ravenheart” (originally recorded for the album Ravenheart in 2004) and “Now & Forever” (India, 2005). A cover version of Sonata Arctica’s “Don’t Say A Word” will also be on the EP.

For the second cover, the band says the following: “During the photoshoot for the Sacrificium record we were digging through our music libraries to find something appropriate for getting us in the right mood. At some point we got stuck with an artist every one of us had a crush on someone with and a story to tell about back then from our teenager days in the earlier ‘90s.

“We straight away started joking about doing a Xandria version of this particular song, but really forgot about it until the discussion of doing some remake for an EP came up again. With the biggest respect we started this operation of transforming one of our all-time faves, a real classic, into a Xandria hymn. Well, we think we quite did an ‘okay’ job and on July the 31st it`s your turn to decide whether you`ve got a favorite song or not: Fire & Ashes will contain our intonation of Meat Loaf’s “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’.”