Conception (band)

The band began when guitarist Tore Østby joined three local musicians, who were playing covers of metal bands for their own enjoyment. Tore ended up getting ambitions of beginning his own work and started writing original material. Around the same time, the band acquired Dag Østby as their vocalist and the band named themselves "Redrum". The band was active for only a few months before the three local members left abruptly. Tore and Dag recruited Werner Skogli as the band's drummer as well as Tranberg alumnus Freddy Samsonstuen for bass guitar. With a fresh new line-up, Tore chose the band's name "Conception", for which their first rehearsal on 5 November 1989 began the foundation of the band, continuing to practice and refine their sound.

The following year, the band hired engineer Nils Harald Mæhlum to record their first demo which had a strong base in thrash metal. Not long after the band recorded their first demo tape, Werner left the band and Nils Harald Mæhlum suggested Arve Heimdal who jammed with Tore after a listen to the demo and become the band's drummer. After recording a second demo with the same producer, Freddy Samsonstuen left the band, and Ingar Amlien was hired as the band's bassist following a jam session with Østby and Heimdal. The band continued rehearsing, occasionally performing to small audiences in Dag's garden to overcome the band's stage fright. The band performed publicly for the first time on 22 December 1990 at the Sentrum Kino in Dokka as part of a local festival titled "MEGAROCK", in which they were noted as the best performers that evening, resulting in more shows from the band soon following.

Following successful performances, the band prepared to record a single to release. Tore began to experiment in other types of music which in turn began to alter the band's direction of music to a melodic, progressive style, which in turn from the demands, made it clear that the band wanted a different singer. With the new music direction the band wanted to take, Dag Østby quit, and the band began auditioning new singers, eventually settling on Roy Khan, a classically trained opera singer from Elverum. The band had already recorded a lot of material from their first album, The Last Sunset. Following rehearsals, the band returned to the studio to finish the album with vocal recording and recording the title track of the album. Hans Christian Gjestvang was hired by the band to record the keyboards. When the album was finished, they established their own independent record label "Conception Self-Financed".

Following its 1991 release, the title track entered at number three on the Norsktoppen charts in 1992 for three weeks, as well as the album having receiving praise from European reviewers. In 1992, the band recorded a song titled "Black on Black" for a compilation CD of Norway's metal scene. The band was later discovered and signed by German label Noise Records in 1993, where they recorded their second album Parallel Minds, released the same year. The following year Noise also reissued their debut album. In 1995, the band released their third album, In Your Multitude and their fourth album, Flow, in 1997.

The band was characterized by a unique sound in the power/progressive metal genre, notable for Østby's occasional integration of elements of flamenco (which he would continue in his later work with Ark) and Khan's unique, operatic vocals.

Conception disbanded in 1997, and after that Roy Khan was invited to join American symphonic power metal band Kamelot as their new lead singer. He went on to release several albums with the band, before departing in 2010 due to health issues, and retiring from music indefinitely. Østby devoted his focus to Ark, a progressive metal band he had formed in 1999 along with Jørn Lande and John Macaluso. They disbanded in 2002 and reunited from 2009 to 2011. Ingar Amlien formed the death metal band Crest of Darkness, who have released six studio albums as of 2018, and remain active.^[3] Drummer Arve Heimdal retired from music in 1999, making a one-off return for the band's 2005 reunion.

Conception se reunió en 2005, tocando en el importante festival estadounidense de metal progresivo ProgPower USA el 16 de septiembre ^{[ 4 ]} y en el festival noruego Scream Magazines 15 Years & 100 Issues el 1 de octubre, reuniendo de nuevo a la formación final de cinco miembros.

En abril de 2018, comenzaron a circular rumores de que la banda planeaba un regreso, tras informes de ensayos en Gjøvik , seguidos de fotos de fans de la banda junta. Tan solo unos días antes, el vocalista Roy Khan había publicado una nueva canción en su canal personal de YouTube, su primera grabación conocida desde 2010. Sin embargo, esta canción no tenía ninguna conexión con Conception. ^{[ 5 ]}

El 30 de abril de 2018, la banda confirmó oficialmente su reunión y anunció la grabación de un EP titulado My Dark Symphony , que se lanzó el 23 de noviembre de 2018. ^{[ 6 ]} La reunión incluyó la formación clásica de cuatro miembros, con Heimdal y Khan saliendo de su retiro. ^{[ 7 ]} Tras el lanzamiento del EP, la banda ofreció dos conciertos de reunión en Gjøvik, Noruega, a finales de abril, antes de partir para actuar en tres festivales europeos durante el verano de 2019.

El 20 de febrero de 2020, la banda anunció su quinto álbum de estudio , State of Deception , que se lanzó el 3 de abril de 2020. ^{[ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ]} El primer sencillo del álbum, "Waywardly Broken", se lanzó el 6 de marzo de 2020, junto con un video con la letra. ^{[ 11 ]} La banda lanzó un video musical para su canción "No Rewind" el 22 de mayo de 2021. ^{[ 12 ]} El 6 de junio de 2021, la banda anunció que lanzarían una edición ampliada de State of Deception en 2022, con pistas en vivo, regrabaciones y nuevas canciones. También anunciaron el lanzamiento del sencillo "Cry", que fue grabado en vivo. ^{[ 13 ]} El 5 de febrero de 2022, Conception lanzó "Monument in Time", una canción que se incluyó en la edición de lujo de State of Deception . ^{[ 14 ]}

La banda había anunciado originalmente el 1 de julio de 2019 que se embarcarían en su primera gira europea como cabeza de cartel en veintitrés años en abril del mismo año en que se lanzó el nuevo álbum. Debido a la pandemia de COVID-19 , la banda pospuso la gira hasta 2022. ^{[ 15 ]} El 9 de septiembre de 2022, la banda reeditó sus primeros cuatro álbumes. ^{[ 16 ]}

El 1 de julio de 2025, Khan declaró en una entrevista que la banda había escrito algunas canciones para el próximo álbum. ^{[ 17 ]}