Review by Ben for Pestilence - Testimony of the Ancients (1991)

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.