Norwegians delve even deeper into progressive metal territory
By Luiz Athayde
Due to the huge hiatus, Conception’s discography is even short. However, each release is challenging to describe in words, considering the greatness and finesse of their compositions.
Well, on this exact day, in the class of 1995, the Norwegian band from Innlandet, edited their third studio album via Noise Records stamp. The recordings took place at Stairway to Heaven Studio, in Germany, during that same year, and takes production, sound engineering, mixing and mastering signed by Tommy Newton (Victory, Helloween, Steeler, Gamma Ray).
As usual, the lyrics are by vocalist Roy Khan, who also contributes on the musical part with guitarist and main songwriter, Tore Østby, on some of the 10 tracks present.
The temporal distance in relation to the album Parallel Minds (1993) is short, but significant. It was on this record that the band plunged deeply into progressive heavy metal, or rather, into the sphere of intricate passages, tempos and setbacks. Besides having emphasized a more full-bodied, but clear sound; a voluminous, heavy, but above all cohesive work.
Tracks like “Under A Mourning Star” and “Retrospect” already show what they came for, while “A Million Gods” emphasizes the tradition of bringing extra metallic elements, like flamenco and arabic music.
Everything is wrapped not only in virtuosity, but with the more ethereal side of the feeling, in the addition of keyboard ambiences in some moments. Incidentally, these were performed by Trond Nagell-Dahl (responsible for the album’s pre-production), as Hans Christian Gjestvang had left. The most striking climatizations are in the ballad “Sanctuary”, in “Some Wounds” and in the title track.
All in all, the whole work is an excellent confluence of powerful riffs, great solos, some catchy bass lines and a creativity in the percussive realm that prevents any critic of the style to wring his nose.
In Your Info:
+ Cover artwork bears the signature of Martin Romeis, known for illustrating albums by Thundersteel (self-titled) and Gamma Ray’s Land of the Free.
+ The Japanese edition of In Your Multitude features the bonus track “Gravity”, which is also reprised on the double vinyl edition of 2022, along with the demos of “Move Closer” and “In Your Multitude”.