It is time to bring out the blades and get ready to shred! This time Norwegian progressive/power metallers Conception are on the cutting board, where Alex is taking a deep and long look at their discography!
The minimum number of albums a band has to have to be eligible for a Shredding feature is five and Conception just took that hurdle earlier this year with the release of their, well, fifth studio album, so without much further ado, let’s see how Alex ranks their creations so far!
State of Deception (2020)
State of Deception, Conception’s first album in 23 years, had fans of the band (and Khan) salivate. Unfortunately most of the excitement was unwarranted, as the album has hardly anything left in common with the Conception of old (other than Khan’s voice, which here, too, sounds reigned in, though). In all fairness, in a way it is a continuation down the path they had chosen with their previous album Flow, but where there once had been vibrancy, there is grey, where there once had been an outstanding mix of virtuoso musicianship, catchy melodies and energy, there now is now is a muddled mix of prog rock, dark and dreary atmospheres and just overall blahness.
Tracks to check out: Waywardly Broken, Anybody Out There, Feather Moves
Flow (1997)
For 23 years their last album, Flow marked a decidedly more progressive direction for the band, one that other than Khan’s voice has little to do with their first three albums. With both energy and catchiness scaled down quite a bit, it shows a very different side of Conception, one that older fans have had and still have some problems with, as one of the biggest strengths of the Norwegians always had been this balance between progressive demand and immediate accessibility. By no means a bad album it was a departure that split their fanbase.
Tracks to check out: Gethsemane, Hold On, Cardinal Sin.
The Last Sunset (1991)
When Conception broke into the scene with The Last Sunset, they brought all the elements to take the metal world by storm. The virtuoso fretboard wizardry of Tore Østby, the outstanding vocals of Roy Khan, strong power metal elements, delicate progressive arrangements and the unique use of flamenco guitars made this album an instant hit that won me over immediately. To this date the song “Among the Gods” is considered one of the finest cuts of progressive power metal with the fiery flamenco guitar work built right in. But songs such as double-bass cracker “Building A Force” or the also flamenco powered “War of Hate” where Østby is delivering a world class performance, show their past as a thrash metal band still shimmering through.
Tracks to check out: Building A Force, War of Hate, Fairy’s Dance, Another World, Among the Gods.
In Your Multitude (1995)
In Your Multitude in a way has been the album, where the progressive tendencies began to grow stronger, but without overshadowing the power metal influence just yet. It probably is the high point of the combination of more complex rhythms and still soaring, catchy choruses that live off another stellar Khan performance (just take the chorus of “Solar Serpent” as prime example). The guitar work features some of the heaviest riffing to date (“Under a Mourning Star”) and has In Your Multitude come in a very close second in this Shredding!
Tracks to check out: Under a Mourning Star, Retrospect, A Million Gods, Some Wounds, Solar Serpent.
Parallel Minds (1993)
As mentioned, Parallel Minds, the band’s second album, comes in as the front runner by a hair. An unparalleled (no pun intended) display of dynamics and the near perfect balance between the more power metallic sounds of old and the more progressively oriented successors, it has an incredibly potent 1-2 punch with “Water Confines” and “Roll the Fire”, where the former does not take any prisoners from the get-go with an almost pure power metal sound. Their knack of uniting progressive verses with catchy choruses already was a thing here and with the superb ballad “Silent Crying” and progressive power metal cornucopia “Soliloquy” has it all to make it a must-have album.
Tracks to check out: Water Confines, Roll the Fire, Silent Crying, My Decision, The Promiser, Soliloquy
Join the discussion and suggest other bands for us to Shred in our Discord server!
