Pestilence - Testimony of the Ancients (1991)^{Release ID: 1222}

After a couple of reasonably straight forward death metal albums in the late 80s, Pestilence threw a curve ball with this one. While it's still death metal, it's on the lighter side of the genre, instead focusing on technical wizardry and atmospheric interludes. Testimony of the Ancients had an immediate effect on me back in 1991 and I still thoroughly enjoy it 17 years later.

This is the first release to have guitarist Patrick Mameli on vocals and I personally prefer them above ex-member Martin Van Drunen. The guitar work from Mameli and Uterwijk is fantastic throughout. They managed to combine simple, memorable riffs with brilliant technical leads to create a whole new identity for the band. Tony Chow (Atheist and Cynic) takes over bass duty, which also adds to the technicality level as you would expect.

Testimony of the Ancients is filled with classic Pestilence tracks including Twisted Truth, Lost Souls and Presence of the Dead. The band injected little 30 seconds interludes between each track and while a few reviewers below see these as unnecessary, I personally enjoy them, and think they add to the package. If you like your death metal on the more ambitious, experimental side, then Pestilence's later albums are worth giving a shot. This one here in particular.

Dutch legends Pestilence first came to my attention back in 1990 through their classic death metal anthem "Out Of The Body" which was played on late-night metal radio & saw me quickly exploring Pestilence's first couple of albums. I found both of them to be very solid examples of the early death metal scene too & have returned to them quite often over the years but it would be their 1991 "Testimony of the Ancients" third full-length that would really set my world on fire after I picked up a cassette copy of the album upon release. It would be by far Pestilence's most ambitious effort to date as it would see them expanding their musical palette significantly with a more progressive approach that sat very well with my taste profile at the time. For some reason though, I've managed to never get a firm rating down on Metal Academy & I'd like to change that today.

1988's excellent death/thrash debut album "Malleus Maleficarum" & 1989's widely praised death metal classic "Consuming Impulse" were both classy affairs that showcased a band that was willing to push themselves as musicians but were still comparitively straight forward in their structure & composition. The loss of influential front man Martin van Drunen would see a reshuffle in the ranks with guitarist Patrick Mameli stepping up to the microphone & the super-talented Tony Choy taking over Mameli's bass duties which were both extremely positive moves in my opinion. While I do enjoy van Drunen's psychotic howls, I've always found Mameli's more controlled & traditionally deathly vocals to be far more to my taste while Choy's undeniable chops & impeccable tone would see Pestilence reaching a new level of technical proficiency that would no doubt play a role in the musical direction they'd take.

"Testimony of the Ancients" sees Pestilence offering eight full songs in combination with eight short interludes of various styles for a wonderfully expansive take on the death metal model that wouldn't totally isolate old-school fans but would open Pestilence up to a whole new audience of open-minded metal fans. It's still very much a death metal album at its core but the incorporation of more complex song-structures, the wide use of octaves & dissonance within the chord structures & the integration of jazz fusion concepts within the guitar solos would see Pestilence starting to play in spaces previously only traversed by bands like Atheist & Cynic but maintaining a darkness & intensity that neither of those seminal acts could match. The influence of Teutonic thrash heavy-weights Kreator's classic 1988 "Extreme Aggression" album is obvious throughout without the record ever feeling like thrash while the contribution of death metal godfathers Death to Pestilence's music is still as clear as day, although it's certainly worth noting that "Testimony of the Ancients" actually came out before Death's wonderful 1991 fourth album "Human" with which it shares so many of its traits. Pestilence had traditionally followed Death's lead but here we see them making the running in no uncertain terms. The tendency for people to want to call both bands "technical death metal" is misguided though in my opinion with neither being particularly technical in the true sense of the term. This music is far better served by a "progressive death metal" tag as it's a lot more adventurous than simply making the riffs & rhythms harder to play. In fact, a lot of the material isn't actually all that hard to reproduce, even Choy's bass lines which are still fairly faithful to the riffs for the most part.

Despite the inclusion of the many interludes which are quite varied in their effectiveness, "Testimony of the Ancients" possesses an outstanding tracklisting that's full of genuine classics. "Twisted Truth" is one of my all-time favourite death metal tracks & lead the way nicely while "Land of Tears", "Prophetic Revelations", "Stigmatized" & particularly the incredible "Testimony" & "Presence of the Dead" present an elite artist that's at the very peak of their creativity. This all amounts to a record that I still consider to be the clear highlight of an impressive four album run that would etch Pestilence into the annals of death metal folklore for all time. Sadly, the band's subsequent reformation & continuous efforts to match their early works hasn't amounted to anything of significance but they'll always be afforded a position amongst the greats of the genre nonetheless, such was the impact of those late 80's/early 90's releases on the global extreme metal scene. If you're a diehard Death, Atheist or Cynic fan then you owe it to yourself to get across this record too.

Two thrashy death metal albums into their career, Dutch band Pestilence decided to test out conjuring a more melodic-ish technical spell in their sound with their 3rd album Testimony of the Ancients. The aggravated atonality of hatred in the genre is expanded by some experimentation. Besides the more technical guitars and bass, the drums are close to Slayer's style, fast while far from blast beats, and there are extreme vocals, slightly surpassing Obituary and Death.

Notably, the album has an interesting structure of full songs that are each followed by a short instrumental, something Cynic would similarly do 3 decades later in Ascension Codes. Both track categories have a horror element, probably more of that than most of the other early 90s tech-death albums I've reviewed. Obscure riffs play amongst atmospheric power chords and dramatic synths, with some experimental groove to remind some of Morbid Angel. The eerie interludes have the most of the horror feeling, whether it's the Psycho-ish strings, screams over dissonant keyboards, or church ambiance. I won't talk about the interludes, though they don't detract the album's perfection.

You can hear the horror right away in the aptly titled "The Secrecies of Horror". The high-level melodic soloing are what highlight "Twisted Truth" with a dreamy solo that would hint their stylistic follow-up Spheres. The atmospheric flow in the interludes would continue on after that shining aggression. "Lost Souls" clearly shows vocalist Patrick Mameli having the bravery to growl through a straight fast deadly-for-your-neck headbanger.

"Land of Tears" is the best example of explosive metal soloing genius as a complementary contrast between melody and death metal. The Morbid Angel-like grooves appear most notably in "Prophetic Revelations".

"Testimony" adds a different good shade of sound. "Presence of the Dead" explores more explicit horror lyrical themes than before in the album. The most progressive leads, as progressive as Dream Theater, come in "Stigmatized". There's even Maiden-inspired guitar melody appearing twice. Then after one more melodic interlude that sounds a little uplifting and would fit better in a melodic progressive metal album, Dream Theater or otherwise, the horror is over.

All in all, Pestilence had made a tech-death work of art in Testimony of the Ancients. Just the album cover and title alone is enough to intimidate and convince you. There's a perfect balance between ritual-sounding and ravaging, alternating between full songs and interludes. Any fan of the genre can identify any of these tracks in a blink of an eye!

Favorites: "Twisted Truth", "Lost Souls", "Land of Tears", "Stigmatized"