Pestilence "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.

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.

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

Recording information:

- Co-produced by Pestilence.

- Recorded and mixed at Morrisound Recording, Tampa, FL.

- Mastered at Future Disc, Hollywood, CA.