๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ - ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐จ๐ย ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ & ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐โฆ
August 4, 1989 โ 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 Testamentโs 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 Billyโs early use of Death Metal style vocals.
The guitar duo of Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick is an unstoppable force. Petersonโs rhythms are tight, precise and his heavy handed attack is brutal. His technique is incomparable and easily recognizable. Unlike many lead players in Thrash, Skolnickโs leads and soloโs 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 โ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐โ full-on Speed Metallers. Besides Megadethโs 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. โ 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 albumsโsome 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 "๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐", 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 โPractice What You Preachโ have generally been favorable. AllMusic's Alex Henderson awards it three stars out of five, and about the album, he says that Testament placed "๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐" and that "๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ โ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐๐ก ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐."
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, "๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐๐ก ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐ ๐ ๐ผ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐."
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. โ E.N. Wells
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