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 is a concept album, exploring themes such as philosophy.
Testimony of the Ancients was reissued, along with Consuming Impulse, on Roadrunner Records' Two from the Vault series.
Contents
Music and lyrics
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. According to Ultimate Guitar senior editor David Slavković, the album is "one of the first examples of experimentation" in death metal, incorporating progressive and jazz fusion elements. The album contrasts brutal death metal riffs with melodic interludes. The album also contains thrash metal riffs and "doomy" elements.
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. The album's guitar solos have been described as "melodic, jazz inflected, soaring, and emotive."
Testimony of the Ancients is a concept album. 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."
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