Conception is a Progressive Metal band from Roufass, Norway formed in 1989 by Tore Ostby. In 1990, the lineup was rebuilt after their first demo, only the two Ostbys (Tore and vocalist Dag) remained of the initial lineup. When Dag quit later in the year, he was replaced by Roy Khan as Tore was impressed by his audition and operatic style. Despite their initial short-lived span (about 9 years), Conception proved to be somewhat influential in the Progressive Metal genre due to their unique style. Tore went on to form the even more short-lived ARK with Jorn Lande and Khan went on the join the American Power Metal band Kamelot. They reformed as a reunion in 2005 (headlining Prog Power USA, one of the biggest metal festivals in world, that year), and announced in early 2018 that they would be recording a fifth album.
Final Lineup/Reunion Lineup:
- Guitar: Tore Ostby
- Vocals: Roy Khan
- Bass: Ingar Amlien
- Drums: Arve Heimdal
Discography:
- The Last Sunset (1991)
- Parallel Minds (1993)
- In Your Multitude (1995)
- Flow (1997)
- My Dark Symphony (EP, 2018)
- State of Deception (2020)
The band provides examples of:
- Album Intro Track: Prevision on The Last Sunset and re:conception on My Dark Symphony.
- Animorphism: The protagonist of Fairy Dance is turned into a cow.
- Artificial Intelligence: What the song Parallel Minds seems to be about.
- Concept Album: In Your Multitude is one about a missionary leading a religous war while he is starting to doubt his mission.
- Crisis of Faith: Large parts of In Your Multitude. A Million Gods is perhaps the strongest example.
- Epic Rocking: Among Gods (10:39), In Your Multitude (6:39), A Million Gods (7:45), Soliloquy (9:07), My Dark Symyphony (6:13).
- Epic Instrumental Opener: Several examples, Elegy being a 2 minute track as an instrumental opener for The Last Sunset's title track.
- Heavy Mithril: A lot of it on The Last Sunset, the most obvious example being Fairy Dance. They toned it down on Parallel Minds onwards.
- Intercourse with You: Angel (Come Walk With Me) is borderline this, what with strangely (homo)erotic lyrics and the vocalist sighing and moaning throughout the song.
- Last Note Nightmare: Soliloquy, again.
- Lighter and Softer: Flow as a follow-up to In Your Multitude.
- Lyrical Dissonance: Silent Crying is a soulful ballad about what is very heavily implied to be child molestation/rape.
- New Sound Album: Flow to some extent, at least considering how the three percursors more or less maintained the same style.
- One-Man Song: Missionary Man.
- Power Ballad: The Last Sunset, Silent Crying, Sanctuary, Cry, and Hold On.
- Progressive Metal: They fall into this genre, often bordering on Power Metal.
- Scare Chord: The album In Your Multitude begins with one.
- Title Track: Every album has one.
