Testimony of the Ancients

Testimony of the Ancients is the third album by the Dutch death metal band Pestilence, released in 1991 on Roadrunner Records.

Testimony of the Ancients
Studio album by
Pestilence
ReleasedSeptember 3, 1991
RecordedMarch-April-1991 in Tampa, Florida (USA)
GenreTechnical death metal, progressive 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]

Following the departure of former bassist/vocalist Martin VanDrunen, guitarist Patrick Mameli took over vocal duties. Mameli steered the band towards a more melodic and technical approach. 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
  • Patrick Mameli - guitar, vocals
  • Patrick Uterwijk - guitar
  • Tony Choy - bass
  • Marco Foddis - drums
  • Kent Smith - keyboards (guest)

Production
  • Arranged By Pestilence
  • Produced By Pestilence & Scott Burns
  • Recorded, Engineered & Mixed By Scott Burns
  • Mastered By Eddy Schreyer
  • Cover art By Dan Seagrave
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References
  1. Serba, John. Testimony of the Ancients review allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-17.
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