Practice What You Preach
Studio album by
Testament
ReleasedAugust 4, 1989[1]
RecordedFebruary–March 1989[2][3]
StudioFantasy Studios, Berkeley, California
GenreThrash metal
Length46:06
Label
ProducerAlex Perialas
Testament chronology
The New Order
(1988) 		Practice What You Preach
(1989) 		Souls of Black
(1990)
Singles from Practice What You Preach
  1. "Practice What You Preach"
    Released: 1989
  2. "Greenhouse Effect"
    Released: 1990
  3. "The Ballad"
    Released: 1990

Practice What You Preach is the third studio album by American thrash metal band Testament, released in August 1989 via Atlantic/Megaforce. Propelled by the singles "Greenhouse Effect", "The Ballad" and the title track "Practice What You Preach", this album was a major breakthrough for Testament, achieving near gold status[4] and becoming the band's first album to enter the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 chart.[5]

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—these changes had alienated some early fans of Testament.[6][7][8] 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 values 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.[9]

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.[10]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[11]

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."[11]

Practice What You Preach was Testament's first record to enter the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 album charts,[12] peaking at number 77 and staying on the chart for twelve weeks.[13] 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 radio stations,[14][15] while its music videos found significant rotation on MTV's Headbangers Ball.[16][17] By June 1992, Practice What You Preach had sold over 450,000 copies in the United States.[4]

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."[18]

Touring and 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.[19] The second leg of the Practice What You Preach tour began in January 1990, when Testament was touring Europe with Mortal Sin and Xentrix.[19] 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.[19] 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.

Track listing

All music is composed by Chuck Billy, Alex Skolnick, Eric Peterson, Greg Christian and Louie Clemente

No.TitleLyricsLength
1."Practice What You Preach"Billy, Peterson, Skolnick4:54
2."Perilous Nation"Skolnick5:50
3."Envy Life"Peterson4:16
4."Time Is Coming"Billy5:26
5."Blessed in Contempt"Billy, Skolnick, Peterson4:12
6."Greenhouse Effect"Skolnick4:52
7."Sins of Omission"Billy, Peterson, Skolnick5:00
8."The Ballad"Skolnick, Billy6:09
9."Nightmare (Coming Back to You)"Skolnick2:20
10."Confusion Fusion"Instrumental3:07
Total length:46:06

Personnel

Testament
Additional personnel

Charts

Chart (1989) Peak
position
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[20] 57
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[21] 10
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[22] 29
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[23] 20
UK Albums (OCC)[24] 40
US Billboard 200[25] 77

References

  1. ^ "Testament - Practice What You Preach - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives".
  2. ^ "Gavin Report 1989-02-17" (PDF). American Radio History. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  3. ^ "Cash Box". archive.org. March 4, 1989. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Brenda Herrmann (June 18, 1992). "THRASHING AROUND AT NO. 4". CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Retrieved June 11, 2020. Whether the tour and album will finally push Testament over the gold-record mark (500,000 copies sold) remains to be seen. We almost hit it with `Practice What You Preach,` says Skolnick, referring the 1989 album that sold 450,000 copies.
  5. ^ "Testament - Billboard". Billboard.com. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  6. ^ "Testament - Practice What You Preach". metalreviews.com. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  7. ^ "TESTAMENT - Practice What You Preach (CD)". shop-hellsheadbangers.com. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  8. ^ "CD Gallery - Testament - No Life Til Metal". nolifetilmetal.com. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  9. ^ "Flotsam and Jetsam : When the Storm Comes Down".
  10. ^ "Testament Tour Statistics". setlist.fm. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  11. ^ a b Henderson, Alex. Practice What You Preach at AllMusic. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
  12. ^ "Practice What You Preach - Testament". Billboard. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
  13. ^ "Testament Album & Song Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
  14. ^ "KNAC A to Z Listing". people.delphi.com. Archived from the original on March 5, 2000. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
  15. ^ "Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990)". rocklists.com. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  16. ^ Testament Practice What You Preach CD. Testament Practice What You Preach CD. 2010 (retrieved January 28, 2010)
  17. ^ "Headbangers Ball- The Unofficial Tribute Site - Episode Database". headbangersballunofficialtributesite.com. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  18. ^ Kleidermacher, Mordechai (September 1999). "Speed Kings". Guitar World. p. 21.
  19. ^ a b c "The Legacy / Testament Shows". Metallipromo. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  20. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Testament – The The New Order" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  21. ^ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  22. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Testament – The New Order" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  23. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Testament – The New Order". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  24. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  25. ^ "Testament Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
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