Review Summary: Confident first steps.
“The Last Sunset” is the first Conception album and the only one that fits the common understanding of what Progressive Metal is, which implies lengthy songs featuring long-winded instrumental sections and extensive soloing. This is indeed the only Conception album that can be considered flashy and perhaps excessive in places. Even still, “The Last Sunset” is hardly a stereotypical prog metal album. For one thing, all those stereotypes weren’t even established at the time. The year was 1991, and most of the obvious reference points just didn’t exist yet. Dream Theater had only released their first album and were not at all the (in)famous band spawning myriads of clones and copycats that they eventually became. Similarly, most of the bands that will go on to unleash hours upon hours of tedious neoclassical noodling had yet to assemble and release their first albums. The rulebook for the genre simply did not exist, so guitarist and songwriter Tore Ostby knew that he had to blaze his own trail. Which is exactly what he did.
I would even go so far as to reject the Prog/Power label that is commonly attached to the band. There’s very little Power Metal to be found here. In fact, the band’s first demos leaned heavily into Thrash Metal, and the riffs on display here still retain a lot of that grit and weight. Unlike a lot of bands that followed, Conception did not forget to put the actual metal into their prog. The guitars here are not airy and fluffy at all but have actual presence and impact. The bass is not as prominent here as on the band’s later records, but it has a role to play and does not stay buried in the background all the time. At the same time, Ostby does not shy away from injecting other genres and styles into his music, and these injections are not the most obvious ones, be it the Irish jig of “Fairy’s Dance” or glorious flamenco parts that appear in several other songs. All these infusions from other genres are not just there for originality’s sake but fit squarely with all that metal and provide some of the most exciting and awe-inspiring moments on the album.
All that talking, and I still didn’t even mention the band’s other main asset besides Tore Ostby songwriting and playing skills. Roy Khan launches his career in metal and immediately shows everybody how it’s done. He does not really lean into his mid-to-low range yet, mostly staying within his higher register, but his voice is never whiny or screechy as a lot of those power metal vocals tend to get. Instead, he is brimming with both youthful energy and adult confidence. Most of these songs (except for the title track) were written before he joined the band and still feature the lyrics written by the band’s previous vocalist Dag Ostby, but Khan handles them with ease and panache. This is Roy’s first full-length and probably the first time his voice was put on tape, but it’s not at all the case of raw talent lacking skills. Khan is already an established singer able to exercise impeccable control over the songs entrusted to him without sacrificing emotion and passion. Natural talent, classical training, Broadway swagger. That’s Roy Khan for you!
Having such a versatile singer certainly helps if you want your songs to be diverse and challenging but at the same time memorable. For instance, the above-mentioned of “Fairy’s Dance” excels not only in its jig rhythms, but also in its sweet infectious chorus, and we have Roy’s seductive singing to thank for that. Elsewhere, “War of Hate” is probably the poster child of the album, featuring most prominently that skillful marriage of metal riffing and flamenco soloing. That sound is revisited on the album’s epic closer “Among the Gods,” which sounds like an older brother to “War of Hate.” More riffs, more flamenco (the tastiest parts are reserved for the last three minutes of the song!), more war-themed lyrics. These flashy, high-speed tracks where Ostby showcases his guitar virtuosity comprise the bulk of the album, but they don’t all work equally well, although none of them is bad or boring per se. “Building a Force” works fine as an introduction to the band, but everything this song has to show is done better on the songs that follow. “Live to Survive” is built around standard galloping riffage combined with some outbursts of rapid noodling, although the soloing feast before the final chorus is very satisfying. They are still fine songs, and Roy’s singing is still there to make them sound even better, but again, there are stronger cuts on display here.
Luckily, Conception does not stick to one type of sound for the whole album and the attempts to branch out are quite successful. The stately mid-tempo track “Bowed Down with Sorrow” may not hit you straight away, but it opens up quite nicely if you give it time. The title track is probably the biggest surprise on the album, leaning fully into psychedelic melodies and crowned with another great chorus. These songs provide the necessary variety and show that the band is capable of much more than playing a lot of notes very fast.
“The Last Sunset” remains an odd number in Conception discography, as on the following albums the band will drop all the flamboyance and proceed to show us how to make (mostly) short three to five minutes long songs that are still clever and progressive. Still, this record is not to be ignored. The band is operating at full capacity already, and a lot of what can be heard here will not be present on the following albums. For example, Tore Ostby will not come back to flamenco until Conception is no more and his follow-up collaboration with Jorn Lande will be launched under Ark moniker. Besides, even when Conception are at their noodliest, they are still rather tasty.
