''Testimony of the Ancients'' is the third album by the Dutch

death metal Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...

band Pestilence, released in 1991 on

Roadrunner Records Roadrunner Records is a Dutch–American record label focused on Heavy metal music, heavy metal and hard rock music. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City. Formerly seen as ...

. This was their first release with a new lineup, with

Tony Choy Tony Choy (born June 11, 1971) is a Cuban-American electric bassist. He was a session musician for some well-known technical death metal bands such as Atheist (band), Atheist, Cynic (band), Cynic and the Dutch band Pestilence (band), Pestilence. ...

replacing

Martin van Drunen Martin van Drunen (born 1966) is a Dutch death metal vocalist who started out in the band Pestilence. In this band, he also performed the bass duties live. He recorded two albums with them, ''Malleus Maleficarum'' and ''Consuming Impulse''. Af ...

on bass, while guitarist

Patrick Mameli Patrizio Marco Giovanni "Patrick" Mameli (born 23 November 1966) is a Dutch musician who is the founder, lead singer, guitarist and only original remaining member of the technical death metal band Pestilence, which he formed in 1986. Mameli re ...

filled in for the latter on vocals. ''Testimony of the Ancients'' was

reissue In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions. Reasons for reissue New audio formats Reco ...

d, along with ''

Consuming Impulse ''Consuming Impulse'' (stylized as ''Consvming Impvlse'') is the second album by Dutch death metal band Pestilence, released in 1989. While retaining some of the thrash metal elements from its predecessor ''Malleus Maleficarum'' (1988), ''Consumi ...

'', on

' Two from the Vault series.

Style

According to

Ultimate Guitar Ultimate Guitar (Ultimate Guitar USA LLC), also known as Ultimate-Guitar.com or simply UG, is an online platform for guitarists and musicians, started on October 9, 1998 by Eugeny Naidenov and based in San Francisco, US. Its website and mobile ...

senior editor David Slavković, the album is "one of the first examples of

experimentation An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

in [

]," incorporating Progressive rock, progressive elements and "slowly drifting away towards jazz fusion". Each song on the album is followed by an instrumental outro track, which was an attempt by the band to "push he genre'sboundaries." These brief interludes incorporate unorthodox

timbres In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instruments ...

for death metal, such as

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, samples of

orchestral An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...

arrangements, and

pianos A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an action mechanism where hammers strike strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a chromatic scale in equal tempe ...

. Following the departure of former bassist/vocalist

, guitarist Patrick Mameli took over vocal duties. Mameli steered the band towards a more melodic and

technical Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical area, an area which a manager, other coaching personnel, and substitutes are allowed to occupy during a football match * Technical advisor, a person who ...

approach, expanding on the death metal sound of its predecessor ''

''. The resulting concept album, ''Testimony of the Ancients,'' contrasted

brutal death metal Brutal death metal is a subgenre of death metal that privileges heaviness, speed and complex rhythms over other aspects, such as melody and timbres. The genre was pioneered in the early 1990s by Suffocation and other groups from New York including ...

riffs with melodic interludes. In addition to death metal, jazz fusion and progressive elements present, the album also contains

thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an Extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, ...

riffs and " doomy" elements. The album's lyrics explored topics that John Serba of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

described as "strangely

philosophical Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

". He explained that the album's themes were "

Harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

eruschaos, melody ersusbrutality, the concept of

eternity Eternity, in common parlance, is an Infinity, infinite amount of time that never ends or the quality, condition or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside tim ...

ersusthe limitations of a man's

mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

." The album's

guitar solos A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical, electric, or acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular music such as bl ...

have been described as "melodic, jazz inflected, soaring, and emotive."

Track listing

Personnel

;Pestilence *

- guitar, vocals *Patrick Uterwijk - guitar *

- 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 Daniel Seagrave (born 1970) is an English-born visual artist who created many album covers for death metal bands, especially in the early 1990s. His works are typically highly detailed. Seagrave grew up in Ravenshead near Nottingham and now liv ...

References

External links

"Testimony Of The Ancients" at discogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Testimony Of The Ancients Pestilence (band) albums 1991 albums Albums with cover art by Dan Seagrave Roadrunner Records albums Albums produced by Scott Burns (record producer)