TESTIFY

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Chaotic Critiques Magazine Interview


A band that should be attractive to fans of both a metal and an industrial persuasion is Germany's TESTIFY, signed to Van Richter Records and sporting a new album, Mmmyaoooo. Hardened rhythms and heavy guitar riffs wash over the angst ridden vocal barrage, creating an album that bears the some similarities to Metal Blade recording artist Skrew. In fact, that band's Adam Grossman lent his production expertise to Mmmyaoooo, which will undoubtedly fuel comparisons between the two bands. The same handful of average tracks sees TESTIFY fall into repetition, but such occurences are infrequent and cannot disguise the strength and aggression of TESTIFY's stronger programmer,sampler,and lyricist of TESTIFY.

"Industrial computerized metal...Frustrating piece of wrath. Ugly thick guitars meet ugly sick noises, and some people say that I can't sing,and that's why I only shout and murmur, and I fear they are right". Meet Myk Jung, one of the driving personalities behind the music of TESTIFY "We started in late 1992.

TESTIFY was planned to be a side project of THE FAIR SEX, which was more electronic oriented. A project into which we could put more of the original aggression that once eas a TFS feature. We - TESTIFY have released a full length album,01, the mini - album Ballroom Killer, and now the second full length album called Mmmyaoooo...which is more metal inspired than the predecessor... thicker guitars, darker atmospheres, and the sound is much better. THE FAIR SEX is not that harsh, not that guitar fundamental, working more with dark atmospheres and electronical images. Some old TFS fans even like TESTIFY better these days. Some on the other hand do not like that metal like feature too much. TESTIFY has developed a like form of itself, no doubt. I don't know if it was planned to last that long...I think it was. It is a true band nowadays, which makes me glad. This electronical/sampling habit...makes it possible to get so many ideas arranfed, that in the end you must found more than one band to get the chance to release some of this stuff. I see that I like more the EBM-Electronic Body Music sounds, as well as this industrial/metal thing - and we can do both, I think".

Dissect TESTIFY and you will find a monstrous tsunami of semi danceable rhythms, distorted, malignant vocals, and psychotic guitar riffs dripping with metallic grooves. The formula may be familar, but TESTIFY's approach to the music leads to a distinct end result. Musically located somewhere between Skrew and Ministry, to write this band off as a mere carbon copy is to deny yourself an album laden with consistent and aggressive songwriting, uncompromising guitar licks, and lyrical escapades that twist reality into a semitangible distortion of itself. Myk delineates some of the differences between TESTIFY and Skrew, whom his band has been compared to... "Skrew and TESTIFY might be not too far away from each other, but of course there are differences. For example, in the method reaching the result. Skrew are more natural in achieving the aim; they do not use the method of sampling so excessively like we do".

Behind the band stands a potpourri of philosophy and science fiction that breeds a mistrust for the world, thus inspiring the anger that Testify unleashes via its terrifying musical onslaught. "The world that's going to be totally sick - no - that has always been sick is what that aggravates me the most. Makes me sick, and I'm not content with merely being sick, I even feel the urge to bother other people with these depressing notions...but not too much."


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