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Rating: In the difficult attempt to successfully accomplish the arduous task I set for myself before sending the review of "Spheres," that is, to review the last three works of Pestilence (I'll leave the review of "Malleus Maleficarum" to the brave BathoryAria, who will certainly do it... right?)
hoping to win your approval, I am preparing to complete the work with this "Testimony Of The Ancients" from 1991 (really?), the third work of the Dutch trio (indeed, here they were three for reasons I will explain in more detail in the following lines) who have managed, over the years, to excellently combine the fiercest death metal with the most technically sublime jazz fusion.
Successor to the bone-crushingly violent 1989 album "Consuming Impulse," a great collector of praise from critics and fans, which saw the band tackling the purest, fastest, and most violent death metal emulating the epic feats of bands like Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, early Death, Deicide, Obituary with clearly Slayer and Kreator influences (is it spelled like that?), this highly anticipated album, which had been announced by Patrick Mameli as "more melodic and intelligent" than its predecessor, truly turned out to be a gigantic leap in quality, with more listenable and slow melodies, songs filled with ultra-melodic solos (magnificent the one in "Land Of Tears"), perhaps also thanks to the departure of legendary singer-bassist Martin von Drunen, who went to Asphyx: von Drunen was, in fact, the so-called "hard-core metalhead" of the group, not very inclined to "melodicize" the songs and the general sound of the band, which according to Mameli "was starting to tire of the usual chaos."
However, while Martin's departure marked the band's fortune, allowing them to breathe more freely and experiment, bringing the band to a technical-compositional standard that had nothing to envy from contemporary techno-death metal bands, it also left the group without a singer and bassist (the latter, particularly, was for the band the classic "cursed role," similar to what happened to Slayer with various drummers). But Mameli & company were certainly not the types to take it easy, replacing von Drunen's terrifying and cavernous growl with Mameli's transition from guitarist to guitarist-singer and (listen up, bassists) temporarily enlisting THE bassist of the time, that crazy supernatural jazzman named Tony Choy, who at the time was part of Masvidal and Reinert's band (the Cynic, for those who didn't get it) only to be replaced by another "master bassist," Sean Malone, and going on to work with Atheist.
Indeed, the arrival of Mr.Choy brought a breeze of "oriental flair" into the group: this, combined with the fact that for a while mastermind Mameli had started listening to jazz fusion, was the cause of the album's magnificence, essentially prog-death with fusion hints.
Eight tracks, interspersed with as many instrumental "interludes" perhaps not always functional but really nice ("Impure" I really like a lot uahahaha), brought the album on par with other masterpieces of the time: but the element that further elevated the album was the lyrics, which had undergone another maturation from the already mature ones of "Consuming Impulse." The album, as you can easily understand, is a concept album about life and existence ("Testimony Of The Ancients: The Quest For The Truth Of Existence") and I am not at all worried about comparing the quality of these lyrics to those of the contemporary masterpiece "Human" by Death.
Musically, the album presents itself as very aggressive, with excellent instrumental parts overshadowed by Mameli's beautiful growl (it seems very similar to that of the poor Chuck) and Foddis's commanding drumming, regularly followed by the radical power of Choy's simply frightening bass, which although not at his best (he had to learn all the album's songs in just one day!!!) offers an absolutely impeccable performance, with passages and pleasant interventions, reaching their peak in his beautiful "Soulless," where he mixes chords with single notes with astonishing clarity. Surely we are facing one of the best bassists that metal (and not only) has ever had. The two axes definitely deserve a mention, cutting and breaking as they should, and highlighting the great technical-qualitative leap of the second guitarist Uterwijk, while Mameli is, as usual, at his highest levels. I still have to decide which I like more between this and "Spheres."
Prog-death, never neglecting its thrash origins, with elements of fusion, impeccably played by four masters who have been able to innovate the genre without ever forgetting where they come from: what more could one ask for?
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Secrecies of Horror (04:55)
["An unknown dimension revealed to man"]
Within the realms unseen
The missing have returned
Deformed beyond recognition
Remains of bodies burned
When all is lost
Swallowed by depths of darkness
The gates to the kingdom of horrors
You've passed, now dwell in madness
Flames of eternity
Burn in immortality
Skin melts so horribly
Revealed surreality
Breathing blackened air
Within the walls of gore
Behold the view of disgust
The secrecies of horror
Eyes of fear, torture is near
Tearful cries, you hear
Discovering beyond death
Secrets you will find
The horror you'll meet
Will capture your mind
Secrecies of horror
Secrecies of horror
03 Twisted Truth (04:02)
["Views from a twisted mind"]
A god before god
Summon the demons to enter your body
Ceremonies to attain the blessing
A faith in secrecy
No respect for the weak
The victim of hypocrisy
The philosophy chosen to live by
Has brought you your mortality
A reason to die
No remission of sins commited
When you were fighting the lie
Actions begged to be killed
A sacrifice chosen
Laughter at the sight of blood
That has spilled
Respond to the inclination within
A desire fulfilled
Pride, for the slaughter is done
While being thrilled
Praise who guards your soul
And for whom you have killed
Fools are the followers of masters they deify
Conversion does not save you from death, die
Twisted truth
Twisted truth
A juvenile mind mislead
In the name of your lord you lived
Serving, your death
A life full of sin, good is evil
Believing the unholy words you read
Commandmends are there to break them
Live by your own rules instead
Proclaim the salvation you met
07 Land of Tears (04:46)
["Fear of all evil that controls mankind"]
Dark sides of life
Unspoken by those in search of the light
Darkness they will find
Rejecting all evil, taken possession of mankind
Fighting what can't be fought
Minds penetrated, souls will be taken
Days turn into night
Bodies are falling, hear death calling
Throughout the centuries
Attempts for protection, prayers, religion
Signs make you aware
Of it's mass domination, a divine dispensation
Land of tears
Indulge in the tempation
Your mind will show you the way
Ghosts of the damned will guard you
In this journey into decay
Land of tears
Land of tears
11 Testimony (03:50)
["Seeking life-answers by using dark powers"]
The gates to my subconscious, open wide
Hear and remember, the incantations I recite
Reveal the power, no longer known by man
Possess, before the ancients rule the earth once again
Beneath the seas and skies of the human mind
The abyss yawns wide before me
Uncertain what truth of lies I will find
Appear and share my wisdom, for I know thee
Descend into the foul places of death
I fear for my flesh, for I have seen my epitaph
The price I pay on this lonely journey
Is softened and I hope the gods will have mercy
From a time before a time a cold voice has spoken
From a land beyond the stars I evoke thee
In exchange for wisdom, what evil have I woken
What terrible faith shall consume me?
I've seen the future
I've seen the past
I've seen the sight of whom causeth horror
I've seen my place of rest
I've travelled on spheres, I've seen things
Beyond imagination
The things I have learned are the most pure revelation
Obliterated are the lines of my life
My blood cries out as I make my last sacrifice
I cannot see, I cannot move, 'cause sight is failing me
Knowing that the beasts of the spaces claim my blood
My blood turns black but frightened I cannot be
The bargain is sealed, the price to pay is to rot
15 Stigmatized (05:22)
["Branded, for making the wrong choices in life"]
Open the book of life
To die a second death
Burn in the lake of fire
Next to the false prophet
Face the thrones of judgement
Decide who lives who dies
Glorify the priests of unholyness
Bring forth your lies
Die in your sin, weakling
End in sight by his might
No power over the sacred ones
Kings of a thousand years
Heavenly fires waste those
Who failed to see or hear
The words as old as time
Written and foretold
Marked will be their bodies
Their souls they have sold
There's no mercy, save me
From this purgatory
Stigmatized
Stigmatized
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Other reviews
By ElectricOne
"Testimony... is surely their most solid, intense, and elaborate work."
An album I highly recommend to everyone who was listening to something else in '91 and hasn't yet been able to enjoy this jewel of power and emotional impact.
