 Triviality Beyond Acceptance |Van Richter, 2002| 
01. White Skinned Heroine, 02. Fragile Puppet, 03. Grinning Sun, 04. Invisible Hell (The Plumsack), 05. Abuser's Gabble, 06. The Entaglement Of Sexus, 07. Karl Found Out: The Definition, 08. Braindead Friction, 09. The Seed Of Wrath, 10. Dumb/Numb/Gun, 11. Under The Cold Moon
The last Testify album (released when the band was still active yet) fortunately contains the same guitar driven industrial metal tunes which brought this American-German band worldwide recognition and respect. At the same time, Triviality Beyond Acceptance holds the heaviest music in all of the bands discography because the guitars were tuned somewhat lower and the electronics were subdued.
"White Skinned Heroine" begins the album with a bit too many repetitive rhythms and looks like the content of this album may be less experimental than any previous Testify release, however, this song isn't the best choice for an intro to me.
"Fragile Puppet" suddenly jumps in on the tracklist with guitar riffs reminiscent of Skrew (it is not far from comparison because one of Testify albums – Mmmyaoooo was produced by Adam Grossman, a guitar player and leader of Skrew), but the song lacks that typical Skrew power. Other than that, a psychotic moaning boy and his German monologues draw the listeners attention. "Grinning Sun" comes up with a metal-industrial-gothic vibe and I found the song quickly boring.
Finally, Testify proved why they have earned the listeners' respect with the next few songs. There are three songs on this album that I do recommend you remember, so listen carefully - "Invisible Hell (The Plumsack)", outstanding "Abuser's Gabble" and masterpiece "The Seed Of Wrath". They are all truly amazing tracks thanks to perfect arrangements and somewhat demonic moods coming from distinctive guitar riffs, vocals, drums and bass lines mixed together. "Abuser's Gabble" and "The Seed Of Wrath" are also the examples of perfect industrial metal compositions with powerful drum and bass lines, easily drifting guitar riffs (becoming wayward in a few spots!) and of course repetitive choruses, yelled or at least grunted out with the memorable voice of Myk Jung, the charismatic lead singer of Testify. I think the three songs above are the best ones the band has ever written. Expect your head banging to the rhythms of guitar and drum fusion, then feel free to have a natural need to replay to the songs right after they are finished. Moreover, the apocalyptic song "The Seed Of Wrath" should have gotten a meaningful award for awesome writing and performance ensemble.
If you listen carefully to the spoken words in "Karl Found Out: The Definition": "Testify: Third. Testify - European project, a poor mimicry of Ministry, extremely non-innovative, cheap and trivial beyond acceptance", then it seems the band probably ironically paraphrased one of the reviews which may have been addressed to Testify's music. I have no doubts Ministry was some sort of example and influence for the band on how to make solid industrial metal songs, Skrew alike, but it doesn't make sense to speak about ripping those bands off and especially about "non-innovative, cheap" content (read above about "The Seed Of Wrath" and “Abuser's Gabble").
"The Entaglement Of Sexus" brings a lighter rock sound with heavily sampled backgrounds, but sincerely the monotone beat becomes boring almost immediately.
"Braindead Friction" sounds more rock, Ministry-style ;) but "Dumb/Numb/Gun" presents a little bit of a blackmetal mood mostly thanks to the vocals, however, it still keeps its main industrial metal vibe. I liked the kind of 'glassy' samples used in the background, maybe not matching the song that much but intriguing enough by contrast. This track also brings some Skrew sounding music echoes like in "Fragile Puppet" as I described above.
The last composition on the album is called "Under The Cold Moon" characterized by less edgy guitar riffs, slower tempo, and more fun with the use of electronics. It's undoubtedly a very trance induced sound, but also the weakest song on the album, moreover it lasts... over 10 minutes. I wish "The Seed of Wrath" was extended for that long!
The songs released on Triviality Beyond Acceptance sound full, the writing was also deeply thought out and it's clear to me that Testify has utilized their experience.
The has band worked out their sound over the course of almost ten years; ever since their first EP (Testify '01 was released in 1993) and it is very disappointing that they quit right after putting out such a memorable album. However, I am getting a satisfactory feeling that the musicians put 100% of themselves into their involvement, so Testify didn't end up releasing a bunch of good-bye remixes. I'm not sure if the band was getting along well or being responsive to their fan suggestions in terms of the new album to be, but it feels like Triviality Beyond Acceptance was based on an individual initiative.
Myk Jung joined the band Schuldt (German Tim Schuldt's project) to record an album entitled First Error Code. Then he kept releasing solo albums under his own name, but they don't bring the Testify sound back.
Rascal Nikov has been continuing his electronic passions as a member of well known German future-pop band called Rotersand since 2002.
Triviality Beyond Acceptance along with Mmmyaoooo are two obligatory albums to listen to, both proving the real power of the music of Testify.
(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz, 07/21/2010. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)
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