Conception - Flow

Gethsemane
Angel (come walk with me)
A Virtual Lovestory
Flow
Cry
Reach Out
Tell Me When I'm Gone
Hold On
Cardinal Sin
Would It Be The Same

Producer: Tommy Newton
Year: 1997
Label: Noise Records

Total Playing Time: 43:48 m:s

It was quite by accident that I ever heard of Conception in the first place. Years after I'd given up on 'The Friday Rock Show' on BBC Radio 1, mainly because it had become too heavy, I must have been bored one Friday night and tuned in. Tommy Vance played 2 or 3 songs by a band called Conception that he'd (or I'd) never heard of before. The interesting thing about the songs was that they were Metallica meets Al Di Meola. Some time later, I was browsing at my local record store I saw Conception's The Last Sunset album and bought it. The songs with the Al Di Meola touches are the highlights and I had Conception written off as second division.

It was bit of a surprise, when I got the first issue of 'The Rock' magazine, to see Conception's Flow album listed as one of the better releases of 1997. After being disappointed by Metallica's Reload album, I was still on the lookout for something decent on the heavier side, so I decided to give Conception a second chance to impress me.

Conception have moved on since The Last Sunset. They now sound much more together and confident. The sound is techno-metal with some industrial edges, yet they've still got a sense of melody. It has been a while since I heard any Eloy, but this album reminds me of them. I'm not saying that this sounds like Eloy, just that, for some reason, Eloy zoomed across the vast empty space know as my brain when I was writing this review. The album creates a certain ambience and individual tracks don't really standout that much. It is the sort of album you become immersed in and tracks just seem to flow (I can't believe I said just that) into each other.

At only 44 mins long, it feels too short and that's the main reason I decided not go higher than a 7 rating. With a bit more effort, this might even have been competing with the mighty Dream Theater's FII album, to be my favourite heavier/prog/techno metal album of 1997.

Rating: 7