I didn't have a clue about this one until I decided to send an e-mail to a friend of mine in Norway. He was the one who had introduced me to the magic of Conception in the early 90's, even before the band's Parallel Minds (1993) monumental release. Check out Wild Willy's Gang, there's some of TNT in it. Thought he was talkin' 'bout the band's style, still there was more than just that (not to say something other than this). For the reason that this world is - as it seems - rather small, some weeks later the Camouflage promo copy was ready 'n' willing for review. And I grabbed the chance.
In the country of corpse paint, spiked pentagram leather and smoked churches, TNT was always the living proof that there really IS some sunshine up there. I had lost contact for many years with this band - haven't even heard their latest release, can't recall the title right now - and I felt like meeting an old friend. To put things down: Wild Willy's Gang features the company of Willy Bendiksen (one of the real grandfathers of the Norwegian Hard Rock/Heavy Metal scene), meaning TNT guitar wizard Ronni Le Tekro, also credited with TNT bassist Sid Ringsby, singer Jan Thore Grestad (Highland Glory) and guitarist Igor Gianola (U.D.O.) (Note: Willy Bendiksen had cooperated on an earlier 'covers' stage with Le Tekro in Norway). And I ask: what would someone expect from a gathering of this sort? No,no,no, don't you give me any fuckin' 'lightning' answer 'cause the truth may lay somewhere else than where primarily expected.
Starting off with the unexpected riff of Goliath, I found myself under raising curiosity about this release. A heavy riff, with high pitched vocals, reminding some 90's Judas Priest stuff at first. But 'bad' news occurred afterwards. Burn The Puppet sounds somehow naive - again in a 90's Priest vibe - while Camouflage travels back to the Metal roots (as far as the Hendrix years), still in a 'weak' way. To cut a long story short, alternating their style in the remaining tracks from modern Speed Rock (Collision Course) to plain doom (Just Another Antichrist) and then to Heavy Blues (Joinin' The Crowd) to return to an updated Heavy Rock mix in Good Monkey, I found this, at first, difficult to sum up all my beliefs for this release. (Credit: I really enjoyed TNT frontman Tony Harnell's guest appearance in Break Down. Maybe it's the only genuine Hard Rock tune in here...)
At a later stage I jumped to the conclusion that:
Camouflage presents a band full of skilled musicians that deliver an ass-kicking performance. Still, it seems there hardly is any teamwork in the CD's compositions - even if the album's booklet credits more than one composer for each tune. Did everyone just bring in his ideas/beliefs and then the mixer started to load? I'm not music's Messiah but I think that Camouflage needs open-minded (with Hard & Heavy sub-genres) fans, and I don't know if even they can easily come up with a proper statement for the value of this recording. Hence...