Testimony of the Ancients
Studio album by
Pestilence
ReleasedSeptember 6, 1991
RecordedMarch–April 1991 in Tampa, Florida (USA)
GenreDeath metal
Length42:56
LabelRoadrunner
ProducerScott Burns
Pestilence chronology
Consuming Impulse
(1989)		 Testimony of the Ancients
(1991)		 Spheres
(1993)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]

Testimony of the Ancients is the third album by the Dutch death metal band Pestilence, released in 1991 on Roadrunner Records. This was their first release with a new lineup, with Tony Choy replacing Martin van Drunen on bass, while guitarist Patrick Mameli filled in for the latter on vocals.

Overview

Following the departure of former bassist/vocalist Martin van Drunen, guitarist Patrick Mameli took over vocal duties. Mameli steered the band towards a more melodic and technical approach, expanding on the death metal sound of its predecessor Consuming Impulse. The resulting concept album, Testimony of the Ancients contrasted brutal death metal riffs with melodic interludes and tackled what John Serba describes as, "strangely philosophical, and oddly compelling, subject matter". After each song on the album, there was an instrumental outro track. This attempt to push the boundaries of death metal, at a time when the scene was saturated with copycat "one track minded" bands, mirrored the efforts of fellow progressive bands Atheist and Death who released Unquestionable Presence and Human respectively in 1991, the same year as Testimony. The album can also be seen as a stepping stone on the way to the following Pestilence album Spheres, which departed still further from traditional death metal and headed towards jazz fusion.

Testimony of the Ancients was reissued, along with Consuming Impulse, on Roadrunner Records' Two from the Vault series.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Marco Foddis; all music is composed by Patrick Mameli except where noted

No.TitleMusicLength
1."The Secrecies of Horror"Patrick Mameli, Patrick Uterwijk4:56
2."Bitterness" (instrumental)Mameli, Uterwijk0:30
3."Twisted Truth"Mameli, Uterwijk4:02
4."Darkening" (instrumental) 0:30
5."Lost Souls" 3:40
6."Blood" (instrumental) 0:28
7."Land of Tears" 4:47
8."Free Us from Temptation" (instrumental) 0:31
9."Prophetic Revelations" 5:21
10."Impure" (instrumental) 0:59
11."Testimony" 3:51
12."Soulless" (instrumental)Tony Choy0:32
13."Presence of the Dead" 5:50
14."MindWarp" (instrumental) 0:25
15."Stigmatized"Mameli, Uterwijk5:23
16."In Sorrow" (instrumental) 1:11
Total length:42:56

Personnel

Pestilence
Additional musicians
  • Kent Smith - keyboards

Production

  • Arranged By Pestilence
  • Produced By Pestilence & Scott Burns
  • Recorded, Engineered & Mixed By Scott Burns
  • Mastered By Eddy Schreyer
  • Cover art By Dan Seagrave

References

  1. ↑ Serba, John. Testimony of the Ancients review allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-17.
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