CONCEPTION have been founded in 1989 in Norway's Raufoss by guitarist Tore Østby, vocalist Dag Østby and drummer Werner Skogli, a short time later bassist Freddy Samsonstuen completes the line-up. After a 3-track-demo of classic Thrash Arve Heimdal replaces drummer Skogli, who quite in 1990. Next up is another 10-track-demo, after which also bassist Samsonstuen leaves the band and with Ingar Amlien the band drafts in a four-stringer, who already has some experience with ROQUEFIRE (with TNT-guitarero Ronni LeTekrö), 018 and ONE 2 MANY.
The band founds its own label CSF Records and begins with the preparations for the first regular release. At the beginning of 1991 they enter the Gjøvik Lydstudio, to record a 4-track-EP, but this evolves into a different problem, because soundwise they have changed from Thrash to melodic and progressive Metal and Dag's vocal style just doesn't fit anymore. So they start out in search of a new vocalist.
After a number of auditions they finally hook up with Roy S. Khan (following Khan), a vocalist extraordinaire with a classical opera-education and one month later the band returns to Gjøvik Lydstudio for the recording-sessions of the first complete longplayer "The Last Sunset". The keyboards are taken over by session-musicians Hans-Christian Gjestvang and Staffan William-Olsson and again one month later the album is completed.
With a few distribution-deals they sell around 5.000 copies and the money for recording and production is more than recouped, but despite great reviews everywhere, negotiable offers from record-labels are still missing. But in national Radio NRK the songs "The Last Sunset" and "Fairy's Dance" reach positions 2 and 3 of the playlist and manage to stay in the top ten for several weeks.
To present the record-labels with some new material, the quartet records another demo in 1992, just like the song "Black On Black" for the Norwegian Rock-compilation "Norske Riff & Tordenskrall", released on Mercury/PolyGram. Together with the songs "Soliloquy", "My Decision" and "The Promiser" this track goes out as demo to several labels and after a few negotiations CONCEPTION sign a deal with Noise Records in early 1993.
Together with keyboarder Hans-Christian Gjestvang (before only a session-musician) they begin to write new material and the recordings for "Parallel Minds" take place under the watchful eye of Tommy Newton (HELLOWEEN, VOODOO CULT, TERRY HOAX etc.) in Hanover's Stairway To Heaven Studios and Saarbrücken's FAR Studios.
During the records they go on a short "Melodic Metal"-festival-tour, together with GAMMA RAY, RAGE and HELICON, before finishing the album. For the song "Roll The Fire" they also shoot a video, which is shown several times on channels like MTV or VIVA. After the album enters the Japanese charts at no. 23, Tore visits the land of the rising sun for the first time to meet the press.
In the beginning of 1994 keyboarder Hans-Christian is replaced by Halvor Holter and they tour through Germany and the Benelux as co-headliners together with Britons THRESHOLD. At this time Noise also re-releases the debut "The Last Sunset", with a new cover-artwork, just like a live-CD and -video-compilation called "Power Of Metal", which features four songs recorded at the Melodic Metal-festivals. Only a few weeks later they embark on a complete European tour, this time with SKYCLAD and new keyboarder Trond Nagell Dahl.
In June 1994 the song-writing-process for the third album "In Your Multitude" begins and again Tommy Newton is their choice for the producer's slot. In April of 1995 the album gets released, also as a limited edition with a 12"-cover and a 12"-EP from clear vinyl with a special bonus-track. After the Isle Of Calf-festival in Norway the band takes a break to re-charge their batteries and while Arve and Roy really take time off music, Ingar starts CREST OF DARKNESS, while Tore plans a project with former TNT-, POWERMAD- and RIOT-drummer John Macaluso.
In early 1996 they get back again to work as CONCEPTION and during the song-writing-phase they play their first gigs in Japan, with Lars Christan Narum on keyboards. After that Nagell Dahl returns to the band and the song-writing is driven on with much energy. In early October the again enter Stairway To Heaven, to record the next LP "Flow". After its release in April the band is very busy promoting the album, in Japan as well as Germany, and after that they embark on their first tour of their home-country Norway.
After it has grown a little more quiet after this, the news of the split of CONCEPTION surprises many, many fans... Khan joins KAMELOT, Østby starts his solo-career and ARK, Amlien concentrates on CREST OF DARKNESS and nobody knows the whereabouts of Heimdal...
Last Line-Up:
Roy S. Khan - Vocals (also see Kamelot)
Tore Østby - Guitar (also see Ark)
Ingar Amlien - Bass (also see Crest Of Darkness)
Arve Heimdal - Drums
Previous members:
Dag Østby - Vocals (before "The Last Sunset")
Freddy Samsonstuen - Bass (before "The Last Sunset")
Werner Skogli - Drums (before "The Last Sunset")
Hans-Christian Gjestvang - Keyboards ("Parallel Minds")
Halvor Holter - Keyboards (between "Parallel Minds" and "In Your Multitude")
Trond Nagell-Dahl - Keyboards (from "In Your Multitude" on)
Discography:
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