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. 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.

Testimony of the Ancients
Studio album by Pestilence
Released	September 6, 1991
Recorded	March–April 1991 in Tampa, Florida (USA)
Genre	Progressive death metal[1]
Length	42:56
Label	Roadrunner
Producer	Scott Burns
Pestilence chronology
Consuming Impulse (1989) Testimony of the Ancients (1991) Spheres (1993)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Metal Storm	7.5/10[3]

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

Style

According to Ultimate Guitar senior editor David Slavković, the album is "one of the first examples of experimentation in [death metal]," incorporating progressive elements and "slowly drifting away towards jazz fusion".^[4] Each song on the album is followed by an instrumental outro track, which was an attempt by the band to "push [the genre's] boundaries." These brief interludes incorporate unorthodox timbres for death metal, such as acoustic guitar, samples of orchestral arrangements, and pianos.^[5]

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. In addition to death metal, jazz fusion and progressive elements present, the album also contains thrash metal riffs and "doomy" elements. The album's lyrics explored topics that John Serba of AllMusic described as "strangely philosophical". He explained that the album's themes were "Harmony [verus] chaos, melody [versus] brutality, the concept of eternity [versus] the limitations of a man's mind."^[6] The album's guitar solos have been described as "melodic, jazz inflected, soaring, and emotive."^[7]

Track listing

No.	Title	Music	Length
1.	"The Secrecies of Horror"	Patrick Mameli, Patrick Uterwijk	4:56
2.	"Bitterness" (instrumental)	Mameli, Uterwijk	0:30
3.	"Twisted Truth"	Mameli, Uterwijk	4:02
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 Choy	0:32
13.	"Presence of the Dead"		5:50
14.	"MindWarp" (instrumental)		0:25
15.	"Stigmatized"	Mameli, Uterwijk	5:23
16.	"In Sorrow" (instrumental)		1:11
Total length:			42:56

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

Personnel

Pestilence

• Patrick Mameli - guitar, vocals
• Patrick Uterwijk - guitar
• Tony Choy - bass
• Marco Foddis - drums

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