The great 3rd album by Pestilence on a vinyl reissue from last year on the Hammerheart Records. It was originally released on R/C Records an associated label to Roadrunner Records. It also got an amazing cover artwork done by a legend in the Death Metal scene Dan Seagrave, known from his other great works with bands like Dismember, Morbid Angel, Entombed etc. just to name a few. They recorded "Testimony of the Ancients" at the studio Morrisound Recording in Florida with Scott Burns, a studio and producer that doesn't need an introduction if you're into this kind of music.
Pestilence was probably one of the first 5-7 Death Metal bands I ever heard in late 1991 or early 92 together with Morbid Angel, Entombed, Death and Dismember. It could’ve been after Cannibal Corpse and Napalm Death not 100% certain about that. It was of course with the promo video for the song Land of Tears being shown on Headbanger’s Ball that I first got to experienced this great band from the Netherlands.
It’s still one my favorite Pestilence songs and “Testimony of the Ancients” is in my opinion their best album. It have so many excellent songs on it like: The Secrecies Of Horror; Twisted Truth; Prophetic Revelations; Stigmatized etc. The album has a great production it sounds timeless and very relevant even 27 years after its release. The keyboard parts adds so much to the songs atmosphere and is in no way overdone. Also the excellent band performance is worth mentioning especially those guitars the riffs and solos are very memorable. The only minor gripe I got with the album is the 8 short instrumental songs that are played in between every song. Some are great and but about half of them feel a bit unnecessary and aren't that great.
The two previous albums “Malleus Maleficarum” (1988) and “Consuming Impulse” (1989) are also great especially the 2nd one. But I’ve never been a huge fan of the followup to “Testimony Of The Ancients” their 1993 album “Spheres”. Sure it got its moments and some good songs but if compared “Spheres” it’s not even close with “Testimony Of The Ancients”.
I really like this reissue since I’m a sucker for old concert flyers and this one have many from 1990-92 on the insert. For instance it's great to see the ones from when Pestilence & Carcass toured together with Death on their tour for the "Spiritual Healing" (1990) album as an opening act both in Europe and North America.
Anyway “Testimony of the Ancients” is a must own album if you’re into Death Metal at all.
An old Pestilence poster that used to hang in my boyhood room when I was 12-14 years back in the early 90’s. It came with an issue 3/1991 of Metal Hammer Extra Thrash I still got the magazine that have interviews with Pestilence, Dismember, Entombed, Kreator, Tiamat, Grave, Carcass, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse and a "Swedish Death Metal report" with Tomas Skogsberg of Sunlight Studios etc. I've scanned those ones and might publish them on the blog someday.
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