𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…
August 4, 1989 — Testament released their third full-length studio album, Practice What You Preach via Atlantic /Megaforce Records. (Apple Music or Spotify)
Propelled by the singles Greenhouse Effect (watch video), The Ballad (watch video) and the title track Practice What You Preach (watch video), this album was a major breakthrough for Testament, achieving near gold status and becoming the band's first album to enter the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The Wells Perspective:
From the first moment that I heard Over the Wall from Testament’s debut release The Legacy, they have been one of my favorite Thrash Metal bands (My first tattoo was of a Testament album cover). I have followed the band through every album they have released. Practice What You Preach still shines like a diamond in comparison to many Thrash albums released at the time or henceforth. Chuck Billy has to be one of the best vocalists to grace the genre with his versatility and presence, and these characteristics are illuminated on this album. The songs Envy Life and Sins of Omission also present us with Billy’s early use of Death Metal style vocals.
The guitar duo of Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick is an unstoppable force. Peterson’s rhythms are tight, precise and his heavy handed attack is brutal. His technique is incomparable and easily recognizable. Unlike many lead players in Thrash, Skolnick’s leads and solo’s are more than mere wankery. His Jazz influence and use of exotic sounding scales adds a whole new dimension to the bands music.
While Louie Clemente might not be as fast or blast-beat savvy as many drummers in Thrash and Extreme Metal, he has a good sense of timing and great technique. His drum fills and off-beat time signatures gave Testament a distinct flavor among a crowd of “𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚐𝚞𝚗𝚜 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚣𝚒𝚗𝚐” full-on Speed Metallers. Besides Megadeth’s Peace Sells, Practice What You Preach was also one the first albums that I listened to where the songs made me stop and pay attention to what was going on outside of my own little world. The band became socially conscious somewhere between The New Order and here. And, while I am not one to be politically or socially driven, I do respect and appreciate the bands motives. — E.N. Wells
Background:
While retaining the Thrash Metal sound of its predecessors, Practice What You Preach saw Testament draw influences from numerous genres such as traditional Heavy Metal, Jazz Fusion and Progressive/Technical Metal, and its lyrical themes are more about politics and society than the occult themes of the band's previous two albums—some early fans of Testament were critical of these changes. Songs like the title track and Blessed in Contempt relate to religion, while Greenhouse Effect is a political song about an "𝚎𝚗𝚟𝚒𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚕 𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚝", Sins of Omission deals with suicide prevention, and The Ballad is about a break up and recovery.
Reportedly recorded live in the studio, this was the band's last album to be produced by Alex Perialas, and the production vales can be loosely compared to Flotsam and Jetsam's 1990 album When the Storm Comes Down, which was also produced by Perialas and recorded shortly after the release of Practice What You Preach.
Besides the title track, which has been a staple of the band's concert setlists for more than three decades, Testament rarely plays any songs from Practice What You Preach anymore. Out of the album's ten songs, Confusion Fusion is the only one that has never been performed in concert.
Envy Life and Sins of Omission had been played live again occasionally in the 2000s and 2010s. The others however, including Perilous Nation (save for one show in New York in 2008), Time Is Coming, Blessed in Contempt, Greenhouse Effect, The Ballad and Nightmare (Coming Back to You), have not been included in performances since the early 1990s.
Touring & Promotion:
Testament toured for less than a year to promote Practice What You Preach. They embarked on a two-month U.S. tour from October to December 1989 with Annihilator and Wrathchild America (both of whom had just released their respective debut albums Alice in Hell and Climbin' the Walls), and wrapped the year up with two shows in California with Nuclear Assault and Voivod.
The second leg of the Practice What You Preach tour began in January 1990, when Testament was touring Europe with Mortal Sin and Xentrix.
Following their first visit to Japan that February, Testament embarked on a two-month U.S. tour with Savatage which featured support from Nuclear Assault, Dead Horse, and Dark Angel. After the Practice What You Preach tour came to an end in May 1990, Testament began work on their fourth studio album Souls of Black.
Critical Reception:
Reviews for “Practice What You Preach” have generally been favorable. AllMusic's Alex Henderson awards it three stars out of five, and about the album, he says that Testament placed "𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚎𝚖𝚙𝚑𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚜𝚞𝚋𝚓𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚘𝚖 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚒𝚌𝚎, 𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚞𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚑𝚢𝚙𝚘𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚢, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊𝚟𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚎" and that "𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚊𝚌𝚑 𝚒𝚜 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚖𝚎 — 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚊𝚕 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝙰𝚕𝚎𝚡 𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚜."
Practice What You Preach was Testament's first record to enter the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 album charts, peaking at No. 77 and staying on the chart for twelve weeks. The title track of Practice What You Preach was a moderate mainstream Rock hit, as were The Ballad and Greenhouse Effect. These songs received considerable airplay from Album-Oriented Rock (AOR) radio stations, while its music videos found significant rotation on MTV's HeadBangers Ball. By June 1992, Practice What You Preach had sold over 450,000 copies in the United States.
The album has been included in various best-of lists in the years since its release, including Guitar World's The Top 10 Shred Albums of the Eighties in 1999; the magazine's editor Mordechai Kleidermacher wrote, "𝚆𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚜𝚝-𝚊𝚗𝚍-𝚌𝚑𝚞𝚗𝚔𝚢 𝚛𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍-𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝚜𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚜, 𝚃𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝‘𝚜 𝙰𝚕𝚎𝚡 𝚂𝚔𝚘𝚕𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚔 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙴𝚛𝚒𝚌 𝙿𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚎 𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚑-𝚊𝚗𝚍-𝚋𝚞𝚛𝚗 𝚐𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚛 𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝. 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚋𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚙𝚑𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚐𝚞𝚢 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚊𝚕 𝚐𝚞𝚢, 𝚂𝚔𝚘𝚕𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚔‘𝚜 𝚐𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚊𝚛 𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚙𝚜, 𝚠𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚜, 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜, 𝚛𝚘𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚜."
Notice: Any reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells
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