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It's been more than twenty years since these legendary Norwegian dudes released their last album, Flow (1997), so expectations were high for this comeback as Roy Khan reappeared out of nowhere to rejoin their brothers in the classic Conception lineup. Being a huge fan of Khan's voice and enjoying all of Conception's albums, I was especially excited to see what My Dark Symphony was all about, only to be deceived by a gray, bland and weak-ass display of music, which made me very, very angry and disappointed.

Of the five tracks here (one of them, "Re:Conception", is an intro), only ONE of them is salvageable, that one being the opener "Grand Again", and even this features strange vocal choices by Khan and little power coming from mastermind Tore Østby. It is clearly relatable as a classic Conception song, though. All other lame excuses for songs here, such as the awful "Into the Wild" and the extremely harmful and pop "Quite Alright" almost put the band's name to shame. "The Moment" and "My Dark Symphony" show a darker side to the EP, but are never energized by a climax or memorable moment.

I wish Conception fans were never cursed with My Dark Symphony and were left alone with good memories of this once great band. What we have here now is a radio-friendly, uninspired bunch of middle-aged men trying to sound edgy or cool and failing grandly (sorry dudes, you're not "grand again"). If they continue with this sort of approach to their music on an eventual new album, they might as well change their name from Conception to "Deception". Stay away from this.