FLOW

The closing of a chapter for CONCEPTION ,the end of an era,the final representation!Well,this fourth album FLOW was one of the most delightful and pleasant prove that intelligent music can permanently change itself , without any will to step again on solid ground!Why/Because the precedent CONCEPTION album IN YOUR MULTITUDE was touching perfection and was one of the most amazing inspired mixture of power metal and some fresh progressive elements to bring in the end a very,very good album!With this new album TORE OSTBY,the leader and fantastic guitar player of the Norvegians,choosed at the time to move a little more comercial ,without any idea of launching weaker standards to the excellent quality of the music!Being a very solid line -up crew,the guys in CONCEPTION,in 1997 choosed to put in evidence,in my humble opinion,the brilliant voice of KHAN,the charismatic and marvelous vocalist of the band!He seemed at the time to be more in his element with a more melodic and comercial approach and the songs in FLOW were the perfect oportunity for him to mark seriously this album with his heavenly voice!Unfortunatelly after this album he choosed to join KAMELOT ,a very talented Amarican band where he is offering even today his loyal services! Just hear the sublime ballad HOLD ON ,and we'll realise at what level of amazing vocal technique this guy can sing!The album has a very modern touch including modern keyboard parts and some even more modern drum tempos!Unfortunatelly,CONCEPTION fans were not prepared for this change of musical direction,they were waiting for a second IN YOUR MULTITUDE and they were dissapointed because this album was a100 % different to the previous album!Some very challenging new ideas and the comercial direction -everything was too surprising for the numerous fans of the Norvegian combo!And,it seemed that this was too much for TORE which decided to push even further his componistic ambitions and to form ARK 1 year later and ,the rest is history!4 top class albums is their legacy in music,but what class for each album-each album is different,proving that album after album they were more and more mature and ambitious! 4,5 STARS for a very modern album and marvelous vocal lines especially!