«Testimony of the Ancients» is Pestilence’s third album and it was released in 1991 by Roadrunner. It was recorded in March and April 1991 in Tampa, Florida, with Scott Burns producing. It is the first album with Tony Choy on bass, while guitarist Patrick Mameli also took over the vocals after Martin van Drunen’s departure.
“`Country: Netherlands
Style: Progressive Death Metal
For fans of: Death, Atheist, Cynic
The album is a concept and revolves around philosophical themes. The sound has been cleaned up compared with the previous records: more technical riffs, cleaner production and keyboards that add atmosphere.
The tracks are tied together by short instrumental passages, giving the album the feel of a single work. It runs 43 minutes and includes, among others, «The Secrecies of Horror», «Bitterness», «Twisted Truth» and «Land of Tears».
«Twisted Truth», «The Secrecies of Horror» and «Presence of the Dead» stand out, where the turn toward slower, heavier structures shows.
Pestilence already had two albums behind them, the last being «Consuming Impulse» from 1989, and «Testimony of the Ancients» showed a band that was changing along with its line-up.
The recording was done in Tampa, in the environment that had produced the sound of American death metal, and Scott Burns’ production gave the album its clean, powerful face.
It is Pestilence’s step toward progressive death metal, before the more divisive «Spheres» of 1993, and it marked the Dutch scene of the time.
The album was reissued later together with «Consuming Impulse» in Roadrunner’s Two from the Vault series, which showed its place in the band’s history, and it is still named as one of the best examples of Dutch death metal.
See also: Death – The Sound of Perseverance | Metal Territory and Obituary – Cause of Death | Metal Territory.
