Practice What You Preach

In the early years of activity, Testament quickly caught up their slightly older and more hyped friends from the Big Four with the amount of released records. A year after the debut, "The New Order" was released, and already in 1989, the album no. 3 - "Practice What You Preach". Did it affect the quality? Well, yes and no. Yes, because by increasing the frequency of releasing records, these Americans maintained a satisfactory musical level and were becoming more and more commercially successful. No, because from the release of "The New Order" until the first line-up change, the quintet did not make major breakthroughs and - for the most part - only pushed their music towards commercial successes. "Practice What You Preach" was the first in the discography of these Americans to show such symptoms.

Which does not mean that it created an insurmountable barrier. On "Practice What You Preach" you can feel a slight downing a notch, more frequent heavy metal accretions and much more emphasis on medium tempos, although these are not things that break the coherence of the Testament style or elements that drastically weaken the material in the context of "The New Order". Compared to the previous album, "Practice..." is more catchy and simple (vide: "Perilous Nation"), and has more melodiousness at the expense of pure thrash metal aggressiveness. In a normal situation, one would say that the band - simply - began to soften and softened the sound excessively, but...absolutely not in the case of this album! Although it's not the same high level as on "The New Order", and in the middle of the album, unfortunately, a bit of monotony appears in, the third lp of Eric Peterson and co. very well continues the ideas of its predecessor and impeccably allows for more melodiousness. This is confirmed by the awesome "Time Is Coming", "Nightmare (Coming Back To You)", the title track or "Envy Life", but also by the first ballad in the history of the band entitled - and coincidentally! - "The Ballad", which from a calm intro perfectly gains momentum to an exuberant climax.

Apart from the only good tracks in the middle of the album, a certain problem is the instrumental song at the end - "Confusion Fusion". And it's not that it's somehow bad, because it's really hard to criticize it. The problem is that it gives the impression of being deprived of vocals without reason - as if the singing was accidentally cut out of it. Fortunately, these details end here. Well, it must be added that the band made a really great production. This one is clearer and has more fleshy, which in turn came into even more heaviness from the guitars and drums, more clearly marked Greg Christian's bass and better exposed Chuck Billy's vocals. Also, there is nothing more to say about the form of the musicians - here no one got it wrong and the quintet maintained a satisfactory level, despite a slight decrease in compositions.

"Practice What You Preach" admittedly did not fit into the famous third album syndrome to the same extent as the third albums of Metallica, Slayer or even Anthrax, although it has pretty good quality close to Testament's earlier releases. On "Practice...", Eric Peterson's group quite sensibly extended their characteristic thrash metal style with more melodiousness, and at the same time perfectly revealed a talent for writing slower, balladic songs. After all, nothing comes to mind here that could indicate the sell-out.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

If Testament’s first two albums served as reflections of one another, then Practice What You Preach represents the band jumping into the next phase of its development. The occult lyrics and aura have been replaced by political themes that had gotten common with other thrash groups and the songwriting prioritizes more steady riff work and melodic hooks instead of the faster bashings of old, never quite going into groove metal but almost predicting it in a way. To use Metallica terms, this album feels almost like the missing link between Master of Puppets and …And Justice for All.

Of course that Justice comparison is comically undermined by how domineering the bass gets throughout this release. Bassist Greg Christian always had a solid presence on albums past but is pushed to the forefront, always heard with thick bouncing chugs alongside the guitars and even leading the charge with intros on songs like Perilous Nation. It’s the sort of production quirk that some could find obnoxious but I’ve always found that it gives the album a more distinct character.

The other members also work to tighten up their performances, as the beefy yet echoing production supports the more mid-tempo riffing and the vocals demonstrate even more control with a greater emphasis on level mid-range lines. However, I must admit that there might be times where it’s a little too controlled for its own good. This is perhaps best demonstrated by a track like “Envy Life,” which falls short of its catchy aspirations due to the rather stiff instrumentation and monotonous vocals. I must admit that the album repeats a notable flaw from The New Order, losing some of its momentum toward the end.

On the bright side, there are still some pretty good songs to work with here. The title track is easily one of the band’s catchiest songs and arguably one of the best thrash anthems, combining it’s more upbeat pace with the album’s most engaging vocal lines and some strong guitar/bass hustle. “Time is Coming” and “Blessed in Contempt” also do well to balance their catchiness with the more solid musicianship. I also enjoy “Sins of Omission,” it may not a particularly speedy number but I appreciate the much harder hitting riffs and more urgent vocals.

Of all the albums in Testament’s discography, Practice What You Preach has always been the one that I could never get my feelings straight about. The more accessible bent seemed to work in their favor as it features several songs that remain fan favorites. But at the same time, the production and performances can feel rather forced at times and don’t quite have the adventurous feel of their best work. It’s ultimately a good album but despite its status as an entry point for many fans, myself included, I’m not sure if it’s an essential one.

In my “The Legacy” review, I mentioned how “Practice What You Preach” was one of the first Testament albums I started with and didn’t really enjoy it much. Is that still the case? No, not really but I still don’t enjoy this record as much as the more positive people who've reviewed this album (including the super biased dude who gives Testaments first six albums ten out of ten as if those albums were the embodiment of god themself. P.S. they’re not). To spoil you, I do think this is a great record as it’s filled with some cool ideas and a great deal of technical musicianship carrying over from “The New Order”. Oddly enough I found this album to be even more inconsistent between songs compared to the last album. I understand why some love this record, I really do, but I’m not one of them.

To start off with a positive note, all the musicians are great on here. Alex Skulnick still lays down some excellent lead work and solos; which the solos are probably the best thing to be found on the album. Alex is much more reserved here but sounds more technical with how he plays his solos and really leaves an impression. Eric Peterson is still solid and slows down the rhythm for a much more melodic approach on “Practice What You Preach”, even more so than “The New Order”. A neat little fact is that Eric also did some solos on the album, namely in the title track and “Sins Of Omission”, which were pretty good numbers. Greg Christian is probably a standout on this album as his bass pops out of the mix more than any other album up to his point. His play style helps keep a good flow with the rhythm section while retaining his own little melodys going on in the background. I really enjoyed his little opening on “Perilous Nation” as it sets up the main rhythm when the guitars and the drums come in.

Louie Clemente is still tight in his drumming and much more reserved here as many of the songs require a slower tempo. He’s still able to let loose on the faster tracks such as “Blessed In Contempt”, “Sins Of Omission”, the second half of “The Ballad”, and “Nightmare (Coming Back To You)” but overall has a more restrained approach. Chuck Billy, for the most part, sounds great. This is the record where he transitioned into that melodic way of singing that he's known for and where the “Hetfield imitator” complaints come from. Now, I don’t think he actually sounds like James here but I do think it’s clear that Chuck was greatly influenced by the way Hetfield sings. But besides the more melodic approach, Chuck still retains some of his aggressive bark and even exhibits an early “death growl” on the album.

Another thing I like a lot is the mix on “Practice What You Preach”. Everybody can be clearly heard and doesn’t sound to me like one band member is being shaded by another. Again, Greg’s prominent bass on the album is a big positive in my book. Too bad the rest of the production is somewhat flat. Sure, everyone on here can be heard, but the sound quality is very dry and lacking some of the punch that can be found on previous records. Because of the drier sound, I found whatever atmosphere that could have been on here lost and ultimately comes off flat to me. If you could give me the mix from this album and the production job from “The New Order”, it would have been really great.
Before I go more into the negative stuff, one last positive is the art. Testament’s early and modern work has some of the best album art in the genre and “Practice What You Preach” is no different. The brighter color palette is eye-catching and the clear theme of the art is simple yet engaging.

Now, it’s taken me some time to really think about the elements, outside of the dry production, that I don’t like about “Practice What You Preach”. It’s clear that there’s plenty of good elements at play here, such as more of a jazzy influence in the writing such as the instrumental, “Confusion Fusion”, being a clear example and more of the technical finesse found in the title track, “Practice What You Preach”, or “Time Is Coming”. Yet, I kept coming back thinking something was wrong, something was surely wrong about some of the music and as I really began to think about it, I realized the major issue of the record. The writing. The writing was the biggest issue. While there’s a fair share of interesting technical writing being sprinkled in places, there’s almost an equal amount of dull riffing and song structures that bog it down. A lot of the songs, or possibly the whole album if you could make a case for it, sounds like it lacks passion and feels low energy. Now that’s not because they decided to make the songs slower or melodic, no it’s a combination of the dry, almost lifeless sound quality and the simplified writing structures.

Take the song “Envy Life” for example, the song follows a simple and repetitive riff throughout and adds your occasional little guitar doodles and solo. “Blessed In Contempt” follows in a similar fashion. “Greenhouse Effect” and “Nightmare (Coming Back To You)” works the same way as well. If there was a little more effort to set up some sort of atmosphere or tone for these songs, I think they could be a little stronger but outside of some great solo work and little guitar chords being thrown in, the songs just sound a little limp. Another song I’d like to point out is “The Ballad”. “The Ballad” isn’t a song I hate, nor do I find any of these songs bad, nor do I find this song bad, but it’s clear for their first ballad, they didn’t really hit it off right. It tries to set itself up to be this big emotional moment but lacks the emotion part. I love Chuck Billy, I really do, but he’s not the best in the first half and instead of coming off as very emotional, he sounds uninterested. Chuck can be a very expressive singer, he’s shown it before and after, but it’s clear that he wasn’t really ready for this type of song yet. Besides Chuck's vocals, the actual instrumentation in the ballad section after you get past a pretty nice acoustic section is fairly simple and dull so that doesn’t help Chuck either. Luckily the later half makes up for the first half as it injects some much needed energy into the song.

So really, there’s just a split on things I believe we’re good, such as some of the more technical aspects, the mixing, and the performances and the things I found to be poor, such as the writing and the production sound quality. I don’t think any of the songs are bad or necessarily poorly written, but there’s a good portion that don’t stack up with most of their catalog at this point. Some people say this is Testament's best and a top ten release in thrash metal and I have to say, no it’s not their best, and no, it’s not a top ten release for anything. To put it into perspective, look at all the thrash releases that came out in eighty-nine. You had “Agent Orange”, “Extreme Aggression”, “Alice In Hell”, “Nothingface”, “Think This”, “The Principle Of Doubt”, “Heresy”, “Beneath The Remains”, “The Years Of Decay”, and more that I can’t name off the top of my head. Do you really think “Practice What You Preach” can stand up to those records? For me, I don’t believe it can. “Practice What You Preach” is a great record full of neat ideas yet lacks focus and remains inconsistent throughout its runtime. If you’re wanting to get someone into thrash, “Practice What You Preach” would probably be a great choice for them to get started. The last thing I’d like to state is that I do feel that this album is classic thrash stable as, again, it does attempt to do some interesting things and has some genuinely really great things in it. It’s just a very flawed record but a classic nonetheless.

For my second Testament review of their peak period of albums (1987-1990) I decided to go with my second favorite release from this legendary band 1989's Practice What You Preach. As you may know from my Souls of Black review Testament is my all time favorite band and their first 6 records are stunning works of pure perfection. This record right here I see get shit on by some reviewers here talking about it's their first bad album in their discography and all the where is the thrash comments. These people must only listen to thrash bands like Rigor Mortis and shit like the first Onslaught album muddy messes of production and songs that are overly fast and half the time you can't tell what the hell is even going on. These people must not like a bit of melody to their thrash with catchy and technical riffs with precise and articulate solos perfectly structured for the songs they are placed in because that's what you get from Testament during the 1987-1990 era of the band. As mentioned in my Souls of Black review of all the different era's of Testament I believe they truly peaked right out of the gate in 1987 and on up through 1990 culminating with Souls of Black. The first 4 records from Testament are just pure masterpieces in 4 different shades however The Ritual and Low are still masterpieces in their own right but treaded a different path than their first 4 pure thrash releases. I didn't elaborate on this in my Souls of Black review but figure I set the standard of what I consider to be their peak period. Most bands peaked on one album but not Testament their peak spanned across a period of 4 years and 4 albums and Practice What You Preach was the third installment of this peak period released on August 4th 1989.

Yes this album tones down the speed a bit for more melody and it continues the masterful songwriting and musicianship we saw on The New Order. This album has a stellar production/mix every instrument sounds clear and crisp with great clarity even the bass is right up front and really snappy sounding. This album has Greg Christians best bass tone on it in my opinion barley beating out his sound on their next god tier release Souls of Black. As mentioned in my Souls of Black review I tend to view Practice What You Preach as the lighter version of Souls of Black from the cover art to both of the albums sounds and atmosphere's they are very similar and contrast each other perfectly. This records sound is more dry in a way it's still nicely saturated with reverb but it gives off a real dry vibe to it. The guitar tone is a bit more mid heavy than the previous records but still packs a deadly punch to it. The drums are nice a tight sounding with a dash of reverb on the snare and the kick drums here are really awesome you can hear every one Clemente stomps as they are crystal clear here. Chuck's vocals are right up front and he sounds as powerful as ever here singing with way more melody than before. The band recorded this album live which to me sounds really damn good not saying this is the best way but Testament are so elite they can almost make anything work, hell their next album after this one was rush recorded and sounds incredible. Though many may disagree about these type of productions/mixes due to modern technology for me nothing even comes close to the classic analog production/mixes. Literally no tech from today can even come close to the shit from back in the day.

This album like Souls of Black has virtually every type of thrash metal song you could think of packed into its just over 45 minute run time. The album kicks off with the title track "Practice What You Preach" a live staple for the band ever since the songs inception. "Practice What You Preach" like all of the Testament songs from this era a lethal guitar solo one of the proudest ones Alex ever recorded as he has said himself in many interviews. The solo is a modal masterpiece and showed Alex getting even more crazier on guitar than he was on The New Order. "Practice What You Preach" is a mid tempo banger than shows the new melodic elements injected into the bands aggressive thrash sound that has been developed since their debut The Legacy in 1987. "Perilous Nation" showcases Christians massively improved bass tone right off the start is as catchy as the rest of the tunes here. "Envy Life" starts off with slow and Chuck unleashes a powerful deep growl, a technique he would soon use on almost every track on future releases in the mid 90's. "Time is Coming", "Greenhouse Effect", and "Sins of Omission" all contain signature Testament style riffage and face melting guitar solos with more serious lyrically topics like the military draft, global warming, and suicide rather than the black magic and occult stuff that was on their previous 2 works and some of the other tracks featured here delve with the occult still which is a rad topic within itself.

"Blessed In Contempt" was a song that was written before the debut album and was finally featured here and is quite fast just like the second to last track here "Nightmare" which just thrashes on like some of the material off of the Legacy. "The Ballad" is you guessed it, a ballad. This is the start of a string a ballads released by Testament on all their releases post Practice What You Preach going all the way into 1994's Low. The "thrash ballad" type of tracks that is what I call them, Testament does better than anyone else by far it isn't even a contest when it comes to the softer ballad style tracks Testament just obliterates the rest of the thrash acts who attempted to delve into this style of song. "The Ballad" starts with a gorgeous acoustic section with Skolnick delivering a chilling Acoustic guitar solo flamenco style channeling his inner Al Di Meola here. The last track closing out the album is a weird instrumental titled "Confusion Fusion" and while it's still pretty badass it's definitely the weakest track on here but still delivers a solid thrashing.

Everyone is at the top of their game on Practice What You Preach putting on a brilliant performance. Starting with the guitars as they are one of the defining moments on Testament records. Eric Peterson here is in rare from conjuring up some of the most memorable material in the band's career up to this point he even gets a mini solo on this record in the song "Sins of Omission" and does the little pre solo part in the title track that builds up to Skolnick's mesmerizing solo. Peterson slows up the tempos a notch on this record to inject a more melodic approach to Testament's sound which really pays off because it gives every other member of the band to shine in different ways they couldn't on their first 2 records opening up doors for new ideas. Skolnick is steadily on the rise here getting more and more complex with each album. Skolnick's leads here are really eerie and this is the start of his solos kind of sound a bit jazzy and it only gets crazier with the next album. Alex on Practice What You Preach lays down some of the most complex leads in thrash at the time and they fit right in the pockets of the songs twists and turns allowing skolnick's solos to hit with the most impact possible. His keen ear for melody and groove separates him from the rest of the thrash lead guitarists of the era by miles as most could never reach his level of play with exceptions of guys like Josh Christian (Toxik) and Tommy Vetterli (Coroner). With this album here Alex pretty much solidified he's the best shredder in the bay area had anyone not noticed his efforts on the previous 2 releases.

Chuck Billy backs off with the aggression a bit here allowing him to get more dynamics with his voice while also introducing one his trademark techniques, the death voice as he calls it. He only features it for a moment in the beginning of the track "Envy Life" unleashing this guttural growl and holding it out for a decent amount of time before obliterating you with his signature vocal tonalities. This is also the first record where we get to hear Chuck's softer side in the ballad track ironically titled "The Ballad" which is a pivotal moment for the band as this is where they discover how versatile Chuck can be. Chuck Billy thrives on "The Ballad" starting out the track singing with his clean melodic voice which has a surreal vibe to it really channeling the energy the song provides him and then crushing you at the end with his aggressive voice putting on a wild showcase of the range he has. Many people claim he is a Hetfield wannabe and while I do think they sound close to one another Chuck shows here on Practice What You Preach he can do far more and far better than Hetfield ever could and I absolutely love Hetfield's classic voice but he ain't no Chuck Billy and still to this day we can see who can still belt it out and who can't nothing against the great James Hetfield but Chuck still crushes any song he's ever sang in Testament's lengthy catalog.

The rhythm section here both shine immensely on Practice What You Preach especially Greg Christian as this is his best work on any Testament album. His tone here is really snappy and he slithers around the guitar work and grooves with the drums with excellent precision. You can here Greg on every single track on this record and he absolutely kills it on this release. Louie tones the speed down here and suits the songs the best way he can while he wasn't the most technical drummer the band ever had he was certainly the most flavorful contrasting with the guitars phenomenally never over playing or under playing. Not every track is he just drumming ata mid paced level there is moments in songs like "Blessed In Contempt", "Nightmare", and "Sins of Omission" where he is drumming speeds that were on The Legacy. Clemente and Christian show here that they are merely more than just the backbone of the bands sound and can showcase more than just keeping the band in time.

In conclusion Practice What You Preach is a classic slab of melodic technical thrash executed to perfection and they would only continue this style on their next release Souls of Black in 1990. Testament display with Practice What You Preach that thrash metal does not have to be fast all the damn time to be great and really this album and melodic thrash in general just annihilates the thrash bands who feel they need to be brutal and have messy productions/mixes to be thrash. This album is a landmark release in the thrash metal subgenre and has withstood the test of time and the title track is such a staple in the bands set that they still play it to this day. This is a monsterous release from 1989 and sprung Testament into the metal stratosphere with the title track and "The Ballad" receiving an insane amount of airplay on headbangers ball. I'd highly recommend this album to anyone who likes melodic thrash and really just thrash metal in general.

Now, this is how you make your mark as an essential thrash band. This album solidified Testament as one of the driving forces behind metal, among the likes of behemoth thrash bands like Anthrax, Exodus and Slayer. It does everything that The New Order does but better, this is the successor that should have came after The Legacy, it’s really the only way you could return after making a masterpiece like that, and almost every minute of this thing kicks ass, where do I start? The title track is a staple, a catchy, thundering number with riffs that could move mountains, immediately in the first 8 seconds, can tell that this is going to be an improvement from The New Order, and it doesn’t let down that anticipation. The songs actually go somewhere! They’re climactic and exhilarating! The title track was the best choice to open the record, and still to this day it’s one of the most well-known thrash songs. Perilous Nation is probably my favourite, Chuck’s drifting vocals are really cool, and the riffs once again slap. You can tell that the drums are getting more technical, the bass also has an awesome tone, it’s fairly prominent and has a chunky EQ.

The solos aren't as insane as The Legacy, or even some parts of The New Order, but Alex's lead work is still extremely prevalent and he never loses steam during his solos, one of the most impressive thrash guitarists for sure. He relies much more on making cohesive solos that blend with the rhythm rather than writing epic melodies.

Envy Life and Time is Coming are just so good! The intro riff to Time is Coming is my favourite riff from the album, both songs are memorable and top-notch thrash. People criticise this record for “copying Metallica” and I won’t completely disagree, this whole early 90’s Metallica, but here’s one thing : this record came out in 1989, 2 years before Metallica’s black album, so tell me, who copied who? Sins of Omission is shows prime Testament songwriting, everything about this song from the chorus to the solos is just awesome. I don’t really like The Ballad, Greenhouse Effect or Nightmare, but the album closes with Confusion Fusion, which features two awesome riffs and some remarkable drumming. I feel like with this album, Testament went for a less dynamic and more heavy approach, really kicking the riffs up to 11 and dropping (most of) the atmospheric aspects, which isn’t always a good thing, but in this case, it’s the main reason as to why I love this album so much.

Overall, this is a huge improvement from The New Order, and the songwriting sounds a lot more focused and inspired, the tracks are consistent and progressive, catchy and technical (some how at the same time) and Testament would only improve with their next effort, but that's a story for another review. This record's a great one, pick it up if you enjoyed The Legacy, but want a more riff-based approach.

This record has quite possibly the most mixed opinions out of the late 80s thrash metal opuses. Some hate it claiming that it's boring and it sounds like a weak version of Metallica (which I'll get to), but on the other hand, people like myself adore the ever-living shit out of this exceptional record. While it's generally agreed upon that Testament's best release is their debut, Practice What You Preach isn't far from achieving the same level of greatness.

The first thing worth mentioning about this album is that it doesn't have the regular thrash metal aggression. I think the term "passive-aggressive" would describe it better. It's not an assault of 4000 bpm riffs and it doesn't have vocals that feel like they are nailing someone to the wall with the constant shouting (not that there is anything wrong with that). Chuck Billy's vocal approach is a lot more melodic and the songs put a heavy emphasis on the choruses. This is what makes the songs catchy, but the other main feature of the record is being technical and well-executed. Just like The New Order, this record has an insane amount of solos and technical licks which serve as a contrast to the earworm choruses and this is the part that amazes me the most. It doesn't sound like the band is playing different things, it sounds organic and the combination of the aforementioned elements make the record have its distinct personality that no other thrash metal album has managed to replicate.

Then there is the production. I can't stress it enough how good the production is. Instead of trying to hide the bass, they let it shine in its own little segments but even when it's just supporting the rest of the band with some lovely, lovely grooves, it still comes off powerful. The bass isn't the only instrument being glorified though. The drums also happen to have fantastic snares and an overall great tone. All of this becomes apparent right from the get-go with the title track opening the album. Bass groves flying at you, ultra-shreddy solo, and Chuck Billy giving us some of the aforementioned melodic choruses.

While I like every song on the album, the three that stand out the most are Time Is Coming, Sins of Omission, and The Ballad. The Time Is Coming has the most interesting characteristics riff-wise and during the chorus, we get some backing vocals giving the song a few extra layers. Sins of Omission, on the other hand, has a very stompy style of a riff and thanks to that and the memorable lyrics (and of course the way they are sung), it is easily the catchiest song on the album (my favorite at the very least). The Ballad isn't completely what the title suggests. It's more of an emotional and musical rollercoaster. The slightly "hopeful" sounding acoustic that starts the song quickly transitions into a melancholic part where we get probably one of the best vocal segments of the band's entire career and just when you thought that's all the song has in for you, it erupts in a full-blown thrash metal bit which is just as incredible as the rest of the track.

Of course, you can't make a review about this record without mentioning them, so this is the point where I admit that I don't get how they are considered the poor man's Metallica. Chuck sounds like himself more than anything, but if you are really going to argue that he sounds like Hetfield (I can't imagine these vocals coming out of James's mouth because of that little difference in their tone) then the band would be the improved version of the fairly mediocre Metallica if anything.

This album isn't perfect by any means, but this is as close as they ever got to their debut (which isn't a perfect album either). It's needless to say that this is my personal favorite record from Testament and it breaks my heart to know that the band only went downhill from this point on.

The highlights of the album are The Ballad, Sins of Omission, Time is Coming and Envy Life.

I never had high hopes for this record. Ever. I was even suspicious of how it might sound, and more or less, this record turned out to sound like a huge Metallica worship. It’s a shame, because the last two records had an origin, especially for a genre that was peaking. Practice What You Preach lacks what the predecessors offered. While to others Practice What You Preach is one of the best thrash metal albums, maybe Testament‘s best, and like “top 10” albums or whatever, instead it sounds like a downgrade. Can’t say I don’t feel bad about how I’m rating this record, but there are two gems here which will make me revisit this album. Either way, it was a disappointing listen. When I thought The New Order might be a slight decline from the debut album, Practice What You Preach is twice of that.

Most of the songs sound the same: formulaic, predictable but classic. Otherwise, downright boring and unoriginal. This sounds like the kind of record you’d play in the background or play for the fun and energy, only to forget about it later. I already forgot the first portion of the album, beside the massive bass tones that sound like a new feature, having some solo moments like song intros. There’s more double bass work, but quite itchy to the ear. The guitarists still maintained their explosive approach to the solos and heavy riffs, but they sound weak. I don’t want to mention Chuck because I might do no good, but I hope this is the only album where he forcefully sounds like James Hetfield. Still sounds unique, though not the same. What else can I add about this album in comparison? The previous records’ mixes were much better, and this may also be a... testament to this album turning out to be awful: the sound.

Thankfully, there are two exceptions that saved this record from being entirely repetitive. Sins of Omission hits hard, and I mean it’s the first song since their debut album that is dominant. I don’t want to suggest it reeks from the same formula, but it’s constructed the same way most of the songs here have. Nevertheless, it beats all of them. The riffs are enormous, the bass is more powerful, and the drums sound fantastic, despite not liking the mix. Even Chuck, as he resembles James Hetfield to a certain extent here, is amazing. The other song is The Ballad. The title speaks for itself, and as I’ve listened to songs like The Legacy, The Ritual, and Return to Serenity from the next two records, this is a welcoming approach. It makes the band more experimental and not full-fledged thrash metal. Beautiful from the start and explosive in the end. Brilliant and melodic acoustic guitars, followed by Chuck’s, for lack of a better word, crushing clean vocals. Then continues to the explosive sound known by the band.

If it wasn't obvious that I adore every bit of this record, it is now. Practice What You Preach was where Testament hit their peak songwriting platform, which is ultimately what matters more than anything. There isn't a single hookless moment, and to make things even better, the layers are stapled down in a craftier way than ever. The production here may be a dry one, but that allowed the bass and the leads to team up and generate beefier rhythms than ever before. The title track lets this on immediately. If nothing else, it helps capture the overall feel that's gained from the fear-stricken mood and many of the lyrics.

Suspense is a key outcome of this approach, which rides parallel to the achieved mood. Looking at "Perilous Nation," it begins with a stronger bass note, that molds into the guitars. As the song progresses, Louie Clemente amps up the drum presence and Alex Skolnick unleashes memorable leads one after another in the solo. Similarly, "Greenhouse Effect" loads this on vocally, with Chuck bursting out fury that showcases despair with clarity. Greg Christian could not have done a better job backing him up, along with these twin guitar attacks.

Something that often goes along with suspense is a feeling of impending doom, which is extracted and attached to other songs without needing the build-up. It's quite obvious that the lyrics do this, seeing they deal in real world issues (government, climate, etc.) and the horrid outcomes that are imminent if not taken by the horns and dealt with. Closer "Confusion Fusion" manages to do this strictly with instrumentation, which I thought was beautiful. Moreover, "Time Is Coming" utilizes gang vocals in the chorus to the same effect. "Envy Life" cakes this approach with one of the thickest atmospheres, also being the first time Chuck ever implements a death growl.

If that's not enough, Testament dance all over the place structure-wise with Practice What You Preach. The inclusion of the admittedly stupidly titled "The Ballad" was a nice breather after all of the intensity. But even better is the smart placement of the fastest, thrashiest, speed metal banger immediately following known as "Nightmare (Coming Back To You)." That whole section of songs is not only packed with a variation of approaches, but fits them together nicely. "Blessed In Contempt" and "Sins Of Omission" seal everything up by including some of the greatest melodies, once again allowing Eric Peterson to team up with Skolnick for some immense bangers.

By now, this is an obvious classic. Anyone who loves thrash metal as much as myself has heard this before. Whether everyone enjoys it or not is totally up in the air, but this is easily the album that Testament packed the most ideas into. This lead to the songwriting being superior, and the intricate weaving of passages boosted it even more. Steady casting of suspense and doom tied everything together, making the dryness in production only enhance the album even more. Flawless isn't a good enough word to describe this.

This album is far better than what people say, however i understand why people don't enjoy this one. This album is a strange almost homage (blatant copy to some) to Metallica. I actually showed this album to my girlfriend after i heard it and she said "Is this Metallica?" It really sounds like them sometimes... but either way this is a great album and ill explain why in this review. This album is actually a 'thrashterpiece' to me. One of my favorites out there.

Before we get to the music looking at the artwork, it is a strong drawing. Very yellow tinge with some uncertain mannequins t-posing toward the sky. The mannequins are shadowing crosses foretelling the album's imagery and lyrical themes. Also i think i see faces in the clouds, perhaps a call back to their previous album (possibly the future one?). The artist was the same anyhow. In any way, tons of detail and vibrant colors. Artwork is a big deal as it tells me what I'm getting myself into. In the 90's they had some of the best out there. Testament is no exception. Good stuff, Will Benson. Anyhow; artwork is a fantastic piece. What about the music?

Well this is where is gets interesting. Testament already seemed to have an established sound from their debut and sophomore albums. But with this album, the style and songwriting switched slightly. But the production is a big step up. Production is clearer, bass is distinguishable, drums and guitars are in the front of the mix. On this album like the others however. the vocals are in the very front. Which i like. Sounds good right? Well, the production and songwriting are eerily like Metallica in a few ways. I've always personally called this album "Master of Puppets B-Sides". Perhaps a little of an exaggeration, but if you listen to the title track you'll see what I mean.

Guitars here are very thrash as expected. Well-written structure (see Envy Life, Practice What You Preach, Time Is Coming ). Solos are melodic and emotional, completely melding themselves with the songs written. It's almost like the solos were written before the rest of the song. And yes, there are many solos. Every riff and solo are here to steal the show, even if the vocals are in the very front of the mix. They're what you're gonna listen to this record for. Bass is also fantastic, since it's up front in the mix as much as the guitars. It's very easy to hear, which is an astronomical plus compared to many other thrash records out there. It has a ton of presence and gives this record the life that it needs, and even more-so. Tons of short bass solos too, which is something i really love. This album is filled with them.

The drumming is excellent, as they usually are when it comes to Testament. Some of it is fast and complex at times. But most of the time it's just good enough to fit the song. Work smarter not harder, am i right? Not much to say here really. Punchy sounding percussion, its fast and does what it needs too. The point of these drums is to hit you in the face with the bands' thrash prowess, and it does indeed do this justice. Greenhouse Effect and Practice What You Preach are good examples of this.

Chuck Billy does a great job here on vocals. Most of the album is your typical thrash shouting, almost no singing with a couple of tracks as exceptions. A couple of low growls are heard and they're employed more and more on future albums. Other than that, shouting very reminiscent of James Hetfield at times and of the previous records. Nothing to complain about here maybe except for the strange resemblance.

Overall; fantastic album with strange resemblances. Is this a carbon copy of Metallica? Absolutely not. But there are a considerable amount of people who hear how alike they are, and then immediately disregard this album just for that alone. That is the wrong idea and the wrong way to go about this record. Listen to this one, buy it for the band that it represents. Yes there are a lot of similarities, but they are different in most ways. The guitars rip your soul out, the drums beat it down, and the vocals eat it with Chuck's growls and shouts. Give it a chance and you'll like what you hear.

Soon we will arise,

Forming despise,

Conceptual intent,

Blessed in contempt!

Track highlights include Practice What You Preach, Time Is Coming, Envy Life, and Sins Of Omission. Rating isn't a 91% or higher due to their ballad track being called "The Ballad", feeling the impression their identity was slightly lost, and Confusion Fusion falls a tad flat compared to the rest of the album.

I hate to say it, but Testament's third work was a disappointment. Its incoherent artwork - please notice the cracks in the dry ground while massive clouds are in the sky - appears as a bad omen. "Practice What You Preach" confuses me and I ask myself: what exactly do the guys preach? It seems that they spread the message of vapid, faceless and feeble metal with occasional thrash ingredients, because this - and almost nothing else - is what they practice here.

Thank God, there is a small number of good tracks and "Sins of Omission" is the best one. It presents a combative vocal performance of Chuck Billy and the catchy chorus has a very remarkable drive. Its mid-tempo approach allows some dynamic tempo changes and the decent flow is remarkable. It is a pity that the song - and, of course, the remaining material as well - suffers from the slightly powerless production. Okay, the bass is well audible and plays a pretty prominent role. Nevertheless, the compositions sound somehow light and the contributions of the single musicians do not result in a coherent overall picture. Despite the fact that I am listening to conventionally structured songs, everyone seems to play for himself. Thus, pretty decent tracks like "Nightmare (Coming Back to You)", the only lively tune, remain exceptional. "Perilous Nation", for instance, had the potential to be another decent number, but the very bad vocal line at the beginning of the bridge drives the song into the ground, no matter how dry the soil is. By the way, the chorus of "Time Is Coming" suffers from an equally shitty vocal line. Horrible experience.

Without offering good melodies, Testament overemphasize the melodic component. Especially the solos have an egomaniacal tendency which is usually not compatible with my understanding of thrash metal. We do not need guitar heroes, but good, fiery and thrilling songs. This is what "Practice What You Preach" cannot deliver. Its ten numbers meander on a sometimes more or less acceptable level and sometimes they are definitely below. The dynamic that gilded the highlights of "The New Order" is a thing of a past and the riffs fail to form strong and memorable tracks. "Envy Life", for example, has absolutely nothing to offer: no fury, no strong riffs, no melody. A classic filler with some almost embarrassing "oho" background vocals; the song comes, the song goes and nobody knows what it wanted to say.

It is really shocking that guys, who have proven their admirable talent to write exciting thrashers, offer an uninspired, pretty lame album with such meaningless tracks. Maybe it is no surprise that the fittingly titled "The Ballad" belongs to the better pieces. On the one hand, it does not take a lot to be one of the better pieces, on the other hand it serves as evidence that Testament had lost their thrash metal compass. They had alienated themselves from their musical homeland and the result is a celebration of lukewarm mediocrity. Either you take a three-year sabbatical or you use your precious time for something better than listening to the entire work. Just lend an ear to "Sins of Omission" and, maybe on a rainy Sunday, to "Nightmare...". That's enough.

Practice What You Preach mercifully doesn't listen like The Legacy outtakes with padding like The New Order did, and it does show the band actually taking their sound in a new direction to make it remarkable in some aspect. Disappointingly though, the turn taken by the band here is for the worse, with this managing to be an even more lacklustre album than The New Order. While the band do attempt to give their music some actual flavour here, the execution is just as off as before and it ends up making for an even worse listening experience.

With this album, the band moves their music into a more overtly accessible direction - the riffs are more melodic with Chuck's vocal lines being more melodic to fit, the songs are more focused on their choruses and the tempos across the board are more restrained. This is a positive change in theory, the band are moving their sound away from being entirely generic and into a catchier and more ear-pleasing direction – Anthrax having found great success with this approach. However, what holds the album back is that the music is even more bland than it’s been on past efforts, as well as being a great deal more actively boring. The riffs are more melodic and less aggressive than before to make them more catchy and memorable, but they were never good enough to stick in the listener’s mind anyway so what results is an album that doesn’t even have a baseline level of aggression and energy to get by like a lot of their previous material did. Making matters worse is that the vocals are less inspiring and passionate than on previous efforts, with Chuck's early Hetfield-imitation singing being decidedly dull and restrained; there's less grit to his voice than before as well as less exuberant shrieks like he would deliver on past albums. This doesn't help the more hook-centred and vocally orientated material here; he doesn't sound convincing and inspiring enough to make the lyrics stick. In their quest to make their music more distinct what results is a crop of songs that never rises above being mediocre and boring, which is a regression from even The New Order which was just bland and faceless as opposed to being actively dull and lethargic.

The ratio of killers to fillers is lower here than ever, with pretty much every song here going in one ear and out the other - most of the album is devoid of any energy or passion, with nearly every track here being bland and tired-sounding. It doesn’t matter if they shoot for speed on ‘Nightmare (Coming Back to You)’, slow it down and groove it up on ‘Greenhouse Effect’ or go for a half-ballad on ‘The Ballad’, whatever they attempt is dominated by a lacklustre riffs and significantly less aggressive and cleaner vocals that are even less inspired and inspiring than before. The band also over-extend these songs given how few good riffs each one contains; they'll ride boring riff after boring riff with no end in sight. As ever the only time most of the music rises above the mediocrity is during the lead slots from Alex Skolnick, which thankfully aren’t turned into an irritating gimmick like on the last album. Pretty much the only time the formula being attempted here ever works is on the title track - the band actually succeeds in making a song with energetic and catchy riffs as well as not riding them into the ground and having a memorable hook and verses. Unfortunately as it’s the opener the album can be turned off after it’s over, with no second thoughts given to the rest of the fluff here.

One change to suit their new style is the production - it is thankfully much higher-fidelity and better mixed than what was on their last two albums, with the guitars not sounding overly vague and quiet, preventing them from getting buried by the rest of the band, and the drums not overpowering the mix. While this does help bring out the melody in the riffs a lot more, and the drums do hit harder than before, it isn't enough of a change to really bring out the best in the music. The sound of the music overall is still too soft; while everything comes through clearly neither the guitars nor drums manage to have much weight, with the drums sounding a bit muted and quiet and the guitars not having much bite or distortion to them. This is a step up from before but it’s still not good production; it makes the music sound more pacified and tepid as opposed to low rent and messy.

Once again, the reason thrash metal was put in a position to be killed off by something better was filler like this being released every day - boring albums like The New Order got the decline started and weak fluff like this or The American Way only accelerated it. That Testament is considered a top-flight band of ‘80s thrash all but confirms the sheer mediocrity found in the genre during its final years in the limelight.

This is a pretty good album. One of the songs on here is probably my favorite by this band. The soloing is fantastic, and I can hear the bass very well. The vocalist is also excellent. The production is very dry, but I don't feel that if harms the music any. The only real problem is that the song quality itself suffers a decent amount of downward lurches, some of which last far too long.

The stringed instruments put on a great display. Skolnick's soloing is as excellent as advertised. I don't hear as much of the jazz as I expect to, but he doesn't disappoint. He utilizes a very precise and satisfying style. It isn't near as repetitive as Hammett's, as random as King's, or as pointless as Spitz'. All in all, the Megadeth guys are the only big four group who's soloing can match Skolnick's. His riffing is a source of much complaining. I would agree that he and Peterson are several cuts below Mustaine, Hetfield, and King in this department, but that that isn't a killer. The riffs are mostly average, but no worse than Scott Ian's and like Anthrax, they find ways to compensate. In their case, they have their bass player. He is extremely audible, and he does add some variety to the rhythms, in that the strong and talented bass presence can elevate the mundane riffing.

Like Anthrax, their vocalist is quite good. Chuck Billy sounds quite different from Belladonna, but he is just as effective. Billy has this kind of pained, slightly raspy, howl. This is used for maximum effect, and can make excellent songs. Some have compared him to Hetfield, and I can see the similarity. There aren't too many Hetfield imitators though, and I take the same view on this as on Coroner with Celtic Frost. A great example of Billy and the rest of the band making the most of their strengths would be Sins of Omission, the highlight of this album. Is the riffing mediocre, yes, but almost everything else is superb. The lyrics are sung well and with conviction, the solo is excellent, the bass is creative, and the song is great.

The production is arid, I suppose to match the cover or something. As I said, the production doesn't harm the music, but it does nothing for it either. I'm inclined to view the nuances of production as part of the way in which atmosphere shines through, but this really has none. I don't deduct for this, but a good atmosphere could have bailed out some of the weaker songs here. Also on this subject, is the cover. I have no idea what I'm looking at with it. They're some sort of cracked mannequins in the crucified position, but minus the cross, stuck out in a desert right before a big storm. What does all that have to do with the music? If it was particularly cool, that'd be one thing, but this is far from t-shirt material.

Envy Life and the Ballad are not good songs. The former is just average at best. The Ballad is bad. For one, it is very long, and for another, it lacks the songcraft that made Fade To Black and One such classics. I mention these, as I feel certain that this is what they were going for. Suffices to say, they failed. I also have mixed feelings about the closer. Part of me likes the well-played fusion, but part of me feels like it doesn't really fit. Lastly, most of these songs are slightly samey. It's a mostly enjoyable listen, but there isn't a ton of variety, and what is different is suspect.

I have to say I like this album, but it's certainly flawed. This album isn't really necessary for anyone's collection other than a Testament fan, who would already have this. Towards thrash fans in general, I would say this is a solid album to add to a collection. This isn't their best, but it's good nonetheless. To a metal fan of another sub-genre, I would not recommend this. To a metal fan of all sub-genres, I would say this should depend on the cost. If you can get this cheap, go for it.

Practice What You Preach is the third full-length Testament album and probably the best of their first era, which starts with "The Legacy" and ends with "The Ritual". While it lacks the delightful eerie acoustic sessions that are spotted in some of the songs of the New Order (i.e. Eerie Inhabitants and Disciples of the Watch) it is full of superb riffs and impressive, fast and melodic solos. Greg's bass is enhanced so that the listener can get a full image of the band's sound and Louie's drumming is creditable and fast-paced. This one is a great thrash album, but you shouldn't expect to hear anything like "The Legacy". This one combines melody with speed and, as a result, elegant and elaborant thrash riffs are dominant in it. If you have a good taste in great underground music, then you should definately get your hands on this album.

1) Practice What You Preach: This song starts with a great riff and it continues with another one and all of a sudden, right from the start of the album, great music keeps on coming! You can hear the bass chanting and grooving among with the guitars, filling the sound as a bass should and going further than this, offering an original experience to us, the auditors. Chuck's voice is great - do not even think about mentioning Metallica here, I'll talk more about this later - as it strikes right at your brain, making you want to scream the fucking lyrics. The song is very fluent and the solo starts before you even realize that two minutes have passed. The musicianship, the skill, the inspiration, the speed and the melody are all flowing endlessly from Alex's soloing, giving a miraculous element to this song which is already something more than extremely kick-ass. The fact that the solo is lengthy too renders it one of the album's heart-pleasers. Listen to it over and over again if you're unable to discover the magic that's in it; you'll profit much from it, believe me. All in all, the group's conception of this song and their performance on it is astonishing. But music is about lyrics too, right? That's why we listen to Testament! Practice what you preach is such a common expression, but no one seems to pay attention to it. We all are philosophers in our own way, but are we practitioners? We want to have an opinion about every fucking thing, don't we? Just think about it... Once you find your answers don't forget to thank Testament for stressing this out for you.

2) Perilous Nation: Another great song which is full of superb, melodic, thrash-y riffs. Like the first song, this one is not only about thrash and harsh riffing, it's more elegant and it combines melody with speed. The blending of the guitars with the vocals is wonderful. Chuck is incredible at discovering voice-riffs that are so different from what the guitars play and so melodic and mind-intriguing that they make you want to hear this song repeatedly. And while you are lost in the magic land of Testament's music, listening to wild vocals, melodic vocals, great voice-riffs - as I call them - and lunar guitar riffs, the pre-solo part begins. Alex is surely messing with our heart in this part of the song. Every time I listen to this short lead I feel the band's energy overwhelming me; huge emotions of unspeakable pleasure arise every fucking time I'm listening to this part! After that, the real solo starts. Signed by Alex's quality and genius, it's superb. Generally, it's a great song full of intense music which keeps the listener amazed. Let us now consider the lyrics. Testament is known to put politics into music but not in a raw or disturbing way and that's what they do here. The philosophic and realistic approach to politics in this one is certainly giving you food for thought. I mean, think about this piece of lyrics: Bold is the one who dares to say what he feels - renegation man, to no one he yields. Right there, right from the start of the song, there's a moral value to be made into an example on how to live your life. The rest of the lyrics is just as good and adorable while it's full of hidden messages that are waiting for you to unveil them. Speaking of all these I nearly forgot; it takes some courage to try and end a song with a fading solo and it takes talent to make it work. Apparently, Testament got both of these virtues, as this song's ending indicates. I am very happy to note that there are such great musicians out there like Skolnick and Peterson, competing in talent with the great late Randy Rhoads.

3) Envy Life: This one is as very captivating song. In the very beginning of it you get to enjoy Chuck's growl - a technique that he will be using more in the later Testament albums "Demonic" and "The Gathering" - and envy him for he's a multitalented musician. The drumming in this song is fascinating too because it doesn't only provide tempo and pace but it also completes the riffs with great fill-ups. This song is a little bit of groovy too, giving you an aspect of Testament's heavy and imposing musical side. That side combined with Alex's squeals and Chuck's voice creates a unique gloomy atmosphere and that's why the lyrics of the song fit in the music perfectly. Obscure rituals and dark magic are the main themes of this piece, but that's not what the lyrics are all about. Consider this lyrical part: The lost / dark souls of time envy life. If you look beyond the rituals and the darkness, you'll find out an obvious yet veiled meaning in this song; it's the dark souls of all time who envy life, not the peaceful ones who are happily resting in peace. It's the malevolent and vicious persons who spent their life in hate that envy the living. The whole point is that, if you are moral and principled during your life, you won't feel sad when death approaches you and you won't become a "lost soul" envying the living. You'll probably have earned a lot and gave everything you've had to your loved ones and, by the time death comes to take you, you'll feel complete and ready to leave this world. You'll know you did what you ought to and lived a great life; you won't envy life!

4) Time Is Coming: I do not think that it's necessary to point out that this song starts with a superb riff accompanied by an even greater lead that is just mind blowing. Instead, I ought to admit that the next two riffs are pure melody and thrash-y speed simultaneously. Chuck sounds angry and excited in the verses giving emphasis in the dark chorus which follows. The combination of the vocals and the riffs is magical and original. The whole structure of the song is building up nicely, peaking with a repetition of the first fluent riff, which is now used as a pre-solo riff. Next thing you know the solo comes in. The rhythm in the background is brilliant with the drums keeping a subtle pace with pleasant break-ups and the bass flirting robustly with our ears. The solo, of course, is in the limelight giving pleasure to our ears with its greatness and musicianship, both of which are granted lavishly by Alex Skolnick. The complexity of the fuse of the solo with the rhythm produces an amazing piece of music, but that seems to be nothing but a standard in this grand album! As for the lyrics, Testament is onto politics again but, this time, in a more direct approach, talking about corrupted cops and malevolent greedy presidents. Unfortunately, these are the people who are in charge of our world nowadays. I do like to believe, anyhow, that they represent a small minority and that things do change. I do believe that, fortunately, "Life it spins just like a wheel ", as Testament underline in this masterpiece.

5) Blessed In Contempt: By the start of the fifth song you should be already taken aback by Testament's art. This one is beginning with a sturdy opening accompanied by a solo which seems to be blessed in eloquence and swift melody. Chuck Billy enters the musical arena with an appetite for annihilation. His rough vocals are stretched at the end of almost each line creating an eerie but grand atmosphere of darkness. The lyrics are in perfect harmony with that kind of atmosphere, as they seem to talk about an unbearable pain evoked to the singer by many venomous incidents including his father's death. The terror and the misery are burying his will to live and so he ends up a contemptible human wreck. That's what we should all avoid to become, no matter what shit happens to our life. And while you get the chance to start exploring the deeper meaning of the lyrics, a joyful music break takes place, in which Testament present once again their musical skills as a group. The arabic scales that are so commonly used by this huge band are showing up here as well, taking your mind even deeper to the darkness of this composition. The track keeps flowing while our hero is going mad, pleading for someone to take him to his sanity "before it gets too late". All the intension which is constructed hitherto is exploding with Alex's solo which starts out with quick tapings to get to a more psychedelic squealing session, which is again followed by Alex's speedy melodies. These continual inversions might even symbolize our hero's psychic instability. The solo is smoothly giving ground to the last great riff of the song while passing off. That last riff is excellently combined with the distant obscure cry, chanting "Blessed In Contempt", which is giving the auditor the fucking creeps. Broadly, it's a very imposing and morbid piece.

6) Greenhouse Effect: Right from the outset of this song an elegant trash riff is appearing just before the whole thing gets heavier with Chuck being in charge of this heavy-ness. Many inspired riffs come along filling the song with great music and constant changes. It's amazing how many cool riffs are in this song being accompanied by different sturdy leads. Regarding the solo, I must admit that it's a real diamond. Alex is fusing speed with melody again, achieving an exciting result. This song is, in general, another proof of Testament's musicianship; it's filled with A-class music. Those dudes should be honored for giving their souls into music; there's no way they could have made an album like this one without doing so, you see! I won't analyze the lyrics this time as it's obvious that they're talking about adopting an active stance against environmental issues. All I would like to mention is that Testament did again a great job creating a song which contains excellent music and thoughtful lyrics too. Keep in mind though that not all bands are capable of doing so; some thrash bands are completely wasting the lyrical part of their songs talking about endless massacres! That concept could be nice for a song or two but certainly not for more. Anyway, the political aspect towards the ecological issues which is included in this song is also nice, taking these problems to a dimension more original than what is on your television.

7) Sins of Omission: I'm getting weary of composing this hymn to this super band's album, because it truly has so much spirit and skill inside it that I just can't help but mention every single detail. Once again, it takes Testament not one but two great riffs to compose the introduction of their song. The vocals in this one are overflowing with rough excellence while they're neat and catchy. The whole composition is memorable without losing the gloom that Testament always attach to their compositions. A short solo intervenes the song's progression, bringing a gleefully impressive change towards the light on this otherwise obscure composition. As soon as it vanishes though and its gentle melody fades out, the heavy thrash elements are emerging once again. The verse and the refrain are followed by a grimly growl and a new innovative riff blended with a lead part. That is when the solo comes in. Did I say that the last one was a diamond? Well this one's a diamond too, as nearly as every single solo in this album. Fortunately for us, it is lengthy and the auditor can satiate with pure magic. Squeals, sweet bendings, fast sweep pickings and fluent legatos constitute this solo, so enjoy it! The last refrain is enriched with accurate leads so you can be absorbed by this song, in case you weren't overwhelmed with magic yet - which is absolutely impossible. Finally, the lyrics on this one are a real headache. Like many Testament compositions, including songs from this album, depending on the idiosyncrasy of each person the lyrics can be interpreted in many different ways. Personally, I think that this one is talking about how pointless life can seem to be when we are possessed by depression and desperately seek answers to our problems. That's when we've got to use our mind and "hope to find the meaning of existence ". It may be that many different purposes hold us to life but again, we should try and find them in times of crisis in order to be saved. We should not omit to search for them - that would be a sin (of omission)! It's easier said than done, I know, but what's the whole point of life if not fighting for decency and prosperity?

8) The Ballad: This one is a golden song full of emotions; it's another proof that Testament's music talent knows no boundaries. Constituted by pure and sweet melody, it's an amazing metal-ballad, just like the other ballads of this unique band. The only differentiation is that, in this one, many heavenly solos are included. The intro solo is not just harmonically fitted into the music; it's also extremely hard to play on acoustic guitar too. Moreover, when Chuck starts singing you get that knot of sorrowfulness right in your heart... Sweet sadness is taking over your soul and you ought to enjoy this depressive feeling as long as you can because, after all, music is all about emotions. The two next solos are very mind-tripping - especially the last one - while each note seems to be carefully chosen in both of them. The metal part of the song begins after the second solo and it is combined with Chuck's talented vocal exhibition (yeah!). Nice riffs and leads are showing up, leading to the main solo which is a jewel too. This song ends before it even began if you ask me, that's just how fluent and great it is. I really can't understand why so many people underrate it! It's all about music, harmony, melody, and emotions without missing the thrash metal element one could expect to hear from a band such as Testament. The lyrics are depressing all the way, making you sigh silently for all that you've missed during your lifetime. That's until it gets to the end, where hope is reborn from the ashes of despair. Your life can begin right from the start, no matter how old you are or how old you feel; life's never done with you, so keep fighting.

9) Nightmare (Coming Back to You): This one is the most thrash-y song of the album and it lacks the elegance for which I've been praising Testament throughout my whole review. This one is for the rattleheads! It seems that Testament is giving a break to our minds which must be truly absorbed by the quality of the album at this point. This song is based on speed and roughness. It is really robust and has an insane solo which is aiming to drive the auditor crazy. Chuck is strengthening the speed of his performance, rendering this song intense. The lyrics are rebel-like and signify the confusion that many people who are desperately searching for a way to "find the place their life was before" feel. Chuck advices each one of us to wake up from his nightmare and stop taking what they give, implying the media and the political and economic leaders by using the word "they".

10) Confusion Fusion: This is a nice instrumental song written by skillful musicians. The fact that there's no solo in this one, although it's an instrumental, renders it an exception to its kind. In that way though, a lot of attention is paid by the listener to each of the riffs of this piece. Needless to say, the lead parts are carefully designed and the whole composition is complex and pleasant to listen to. The bass is amplified so that we can enjoy it equally with the guitars, and the drums are decently keeping the tempo. A groovy song operating as the unexpected but nevertheless grand finale of this unique album.

There are some remaining points that I would like to point out before finishing my review. The most significant of these is regarding Chuck Billy's voice. Many are the ones who can't really spot the difference between Chuck Billy's and James Hetfield's voice quality but, if you ask me, these guys obviously don't know shit about Testament nor Metallica. There's a case, however, that they are so attached to Metallica's sound that they hear Hetfield's voice every fucking where. Get over it people! Yes, James has a nice voice, but Chuck does to in a whole different way. And since this album is a Testament album I insist on stretching out that Billy's voice quality is unique and that it indicates in an odd but pleasant way his native american roots. His talent is obvious; all you have to do is listen to him for what he truly is, not what you want to hear. Once you manage to expel Metallica from your mind, you'll find out why Billy is so unique. As for the music, I can't understand why everyone is comparing Metallica with every single metal band. You ought to know that almost all the old thrash bands emerged at the same chronic period in the same territory. However, if I must issue a judgement, that would be in favor of Testament for obvious reasons: you really can't compare the skill and the musicianship Testament have with the one Metallica have and you just can't compare Alex's soloing and Eric's genius at composing great complex riffs with Hetfield's and Hammet's abilities. Thank god there was Cliff out there, delivering music to the people!

All in all, this album is an excellent, perfect piece of music. I do not consider Testament to be the gods of music or anything like that, so do not get me wrong. Anyway, this is not my one and only favorite album, but it certainly is one of my favorites and I sincerely couldn't bear staring at all those shitty reviews throwing mud on in. In conclusion, you ought to love an album full of emotions, thought (in the lyrics), complexity, melody, speed, heavy-ness and, of course, thrash-ness; you ought to love "Practice What You Preach", Testament's third full-length album. I'm obliged to utter a huge thanks for Eric's incredible riffing, Alex's godly soloing and Chuck's awesome voice!

I can't speak for your neck of the woods, but as a teenager here in New England suburbia, the buzz over Testament's third album was fucking enormous. Everyone from fellow high school metal nerds (-heads, I'm sorry folks, -heads), to magazine critics, to guitar magazine snobs, to radio personalities was hyping the living shit out of this thing, and why not? Clearly the Californians had offered us ample proof of their potential up to this point, with two flawed but fantastic records. More than one individual spoke of this band as the 'next Metallica', the band that would go absolutely batshit viral the world over, securing every instrument sponsorship available to them, and having mullet haired axe masters frothing and masturbating to their new manGod Alex Skolnick...

When it finally landed, a few days before my birthday in 1989, I was elated, and couldn't wait to head over to the mall and pick up a copy. I was not disappointed. In fact, when I think back on the Practice What You Preach, it really does feel like an album that deserved a large share of its hype before and after release. No, it's not a perfect thrash record, and no, it's not superior to either of the full-lengths predating it, but this was a damn fine effort which further magnified the scope and aim of Testament's artillery, while at the same time finally managing to cross the threshold into a more timeless production standard. Once again the band worked alongside Alex Perialas, but everything here, through whatever technical advisement/advancement seems far better balanced, in particular the guitar tone, which is given a crisper embellishment that no longer feels stifled or over-processed. This album has more or less something for everyone, whether that's 'the ladies' (more on this later), the guitar diehards who enjoyed the semi-surgical precision and guitar gallantry of The New Order, or the mosh police who need oh so much of that sweet home chuggin' to cope with reality.

There are some admitted differences here from the sophomore album, in that there is less of an overwhelming use of atmosphere and melody to stage the more aggressive rhythm guitars. Many of these cuts thrived on their nature as mid-paced, straight thrashing numbers which were well suited to an audience inundated with the likes of Anthrax and Exodus. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of musicianship here, and no shortage of ideas which manifest in a very clean, clinical use of biting harmonies and innovation, but Skolnick and Peterson spend much of the playtime in cruise mode, allowing Chuck Billy's most melodic vocals yet to carry the thunder. Another surprising turn is Greg Christian's bass, which is really brought out to the fore with a popping, almost comical tone that feels like a train of drunken, fat bumblebees heading home from the honey bar after last call. You'll hear this everywhere, both in places where he's alone (the "Perilous Nation" intro) or clinging to the rhythm guitars for dear life ("Practice What You Preach"). This actually reminded me of how Anthrax handled the low end on their 1988-1990 records, but I liked it better here.

For the first 35 minutes of this album, the first seven songs, I was completely on board with the writing, and it seemed like there was no end to the riffing goodness, mighty chorus progressions all feeling distinct from one another without any loss to consistency. I love nearly every moment, from the lead sequences, to Billy's harsh aural invective, to the great setups like the clean picked intro to "Sins of Omission" or the thundering inauguration to "Envy Life", above which Billy gives us an early death growl (a style he'd use more often in the 90s). This all grinds to a halt with "The Ballad", Testament's first attempt at a "Fade to Black". Billy seems a little acidic with his singing range, and aside from culling the wimpier hard rock audience who might have found The Legacy or The New Order too impenetrable, I really don't see any need for this. Until it gets heavier, the song is pretty much shit; so naturally it wound up being pretty popular; but I could have lived without it. The "Confusion Fusion" instrumental finale is a nice bit of tech-thrash, and "Nightmare (Coming Back to You)" is an appreciable stormer, but really the flow of the album is gimped by the time they arrive.

Though a few of the ensuing Testament records might have charted higher (I won't count Formation of Damnation or Dark Roots of Earth since the sales standards are far different these days than they were in the 80s when most people still bought music), Practice What You Preach always felt like their best chance at a 'breakthrough', with solid video rotation for both "The Ballad" and the title cut. Naturally, the success of this brought on some derision and divisiveness from the fans, but apart from about 2 minutes of that one song, this is hardly the 'sellout' some might paint it as. Still, it didn't do well enough that the band could force its way up to that next level of infamy reserved for Metallica, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Megadeth, and Slayer. It's more accessible than The New Order, with lyrics focused more on environmental awareness and personal freedom, but I did miss some of that pervasive, overarching menace prevalent on the older albums. In retrospect, I'd rank it 4th in terms of quality across their entire backlog. I still listen to it fairly often, and its easily one of their most iconic releases, with the five members of the band represented as statues in a desert storm (precognition?).

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Testament seems to always be one step behind the big four of thrash. Being one of the bigger of the second wave of thrash bands, they put out “The Legacy” which I’m sure is considered by most people to be amazing. Their second album, “The New Order” seemed to be less praised and was accused of recycling riffs. Their third album, “Practice What You Preach” is different from both of those albums.

I think this is the Testament album what almost got rid of the thrash all together. Their first two albums, while flawed, were thrashy as hell. This album has a few thrash moments. “Blessed in Contempt”, I’m sure every review you read for this album mentions this song and how amazing it is. This is a song I would expect to hear off their first album. It is fast, heavy, and has amazing riffs. The title track is decent; it is a mid paced song that stays one speed the whole time. “Perilous Nation” has some thrashy parts but still relies heavily on the slow pace that is so apparent on this album. “Time is Coming” has some pretty good riffs, has a speedy part, and is one of the better songs on here. “Nightmare (Coming Back to You” is a pretty fast song. This song is thrash but it’s just not that good. “Greenhouse Effect” is might just be the best song on here besides “Blessed in Contempt”. The riffs are awesome and the chorus is awesome. “The Ballad” is exactly what is says, a ballad. It’s just not a good ballad. The whole song is boring except for when it speeds up at the end, overall a forgettable song. “Confusion Fusion” is a song that says, “Hey! Look how good we are at our instruments.” It’s pretty boring and doesn’t really contribute anything to the album, the bass is amazing though.

Production on this album is near perfect. I think Testament tried to go mainstream with this album. Softer, mid-paced thrash with a spot on production seemed to work for a lot of other bands at the time. The guitars are heavy but could be much heavier. The drums sound amazing except for the bass drum, its way too triggered. It sounds like it’s covered in mud and is hit really hard. The bass is pretty much perfect. It’s loud in the mix and it sounds awesome, very clicky. The vocals are almost the same as before, except the best part is gone. Chuck Billy’s awesome highs are completely gone and replaced by some half-attempt to go really deep and tough. I guess they sound decent but I miss the highs like in “The Preacher”.

Overall, this is a pretty good album. I just wish there was more thrash incorporated in here. Some significant flaws but still a good album to listen to every now and then. If you are a diehard Testament fan, buy this. If you like thrash, you could still enjoy some of it.

Best tracks – “Blessed in Contempt”, “Sins of Omission”, and “Greenhouse Effect”

It’s difficult to fully describe what was going on in the world of Testament circa 1989 when this, their 3rd effort in as many years of putting out studio albums, was unleashed upon the thrash hungry masses. But somewhere between the antics of latter 80s Anthrax and the commercialization of the a number of west coast outfits, Testament decided to plant their flag on yet another niche, this one being trying to merge as many rock elements as possible into the thrash style and try to work it into an outright conventional, formulaic approach. Granted, this is something that had been done circa the earlier 80s when thrash and speed metal were all but completely synonymous, but what is going on here hardly can be classified as fast, save perhaps by rock radio standards.

“Practice What You Preach” is almost Metallica’s self-titled billboard smash 1991 studio album 2 years before the fact, particularly if one focuses on all of the non-atmospheric, mid-tempo work on said album. The lead guitar work is a bit fancier, the bass work is astoundingly clear and almost funky at times, and Chuck Billy’s vocals still tend to resemble Hetfield back during the “Ride The Lightning” days, but much of what is on here could be readily compared to “Struggle Within”, “Holier Than Thou” and “Through The Never” without much of a stretch. Perhaps the biggest contrast between this album and said early 90s commercially overblown super hit is the production job here, particularly on the guitar sound, which is razor thin and all but flirting with late 70s hard rock territory. But occasional overloud chime-ins by the vocal tracking also proves to take the proverbial wind out of some already battered sails.

There isn’t quite anything on here that qualifies as bad or even bland per say, but a good amount of this album is pretty lightweight and definitely points to the gradual slowing down and taming of this style that became know as wiffle thrash. The lone exceptions are the riff happy title song (which is the only thing on here that even comes close to resembling this band’s exceptional debut), the somewhat groovy but plenty heavy “Time Is Coming” and the brief reminiscence of high octane speed metal “Nightmare (Coming Back At You)”. Otherwise, most of what is on here is slow and subdued enough to pass for “Cowboys From Hell”, but without the intricate rhythms and chunky guitar sound. The somewhat corny titled song “The Ballad” is something of a solid ballad, albeit kind of all over the place. Many have pointed to this as being some sort of “Sanitarium” rip off, but between all of the acoustic guitar noodling and convoluted instrumental sections, all that is really present is an overlong continuation of the formula that dominated “The New Order”, but with a less powerful guitar sound.

This is an album that really has not aged very well, as I can remember it sounding worlds better when I first heard it about 16 years ago. It’s sort of a slightly sub par answer to Anthrax’s “State Of Euphoria” meets “The Black Album” without the humor of the former nor the stellar and posh production of the latter. When mixing in all of the preachy political and environmental propaganda (which does not mesh very well with the happy go lucky rock feel of the production), this is an album that misses the mark in spite of all the intricate things going on between Chuck Billy’s strong vocal performance and Alex Skolnick’s fancy guitar gymnastics. It’s far from the worst thing ever put out by a thrash metal band, but it definitely lacks that aggression and flair common to the bulk of the Bay Area scene.

First thing’s first: goddamn the bass clarity is a slice of heaven on earth. The tone’s a little funky on its own, but fuck it YOU CAN HEAR THE BASS, and it sounds a lot more normal when backing the guitars. Rejoice! La, la, la!

Now that we got that little nugget of Practice What You Preach out of the way, it’s time to reflect on what an inept piece of t(h)rash this really is. For starters, the whole album is pretty damn slow. Thrashy riffs, sure. (good riffs? no, but we’ll get to that). But what good does it do when you slow them down to the pace of Standard: Begin Musical Improvement Here? How am I supposed to obliterate what’s left of my braincells while I’m listening to this, because it certainly won’t get my head nodding. The fastest parts of Practice What You Preach are a fraction as intense as any random section of Spectrum of Death or Darkness Descends. This isn’t thrash! This is Thrash Metal’s little sister thrashy, jr.

On the topic of riffs: they’re mediocre. Boring, tame, one dimensional riffs. Though my head is not impelled to flay about psychotically in the metalhead show of gratification, my mind is actually stimulated by this album, evoking thoughts such as:
was there a point to this?
where were you going with that?
should I wait til tomorrow to do my laundry?
I could go for a burger.

There's nothing stimulating about the music, which is a great segue into mulling over the equally disappointing vocal performance. If the music alone wasn’t enough to bore you to tears, the vocals add just the right touch of ineffectiveness to do so. Chuck Billy was never one of the more unique or spirited vocalists, but he got the job done, given one premise: Testament got the job done. But when Testament crafts the rocket to nowhere called Practice What You Preach, you can’t help but notice how dilapidated the vocals really are. This is no commanding performance, it’s the embodiment of whatever the fuck name there is for the point halfway between flimsy and ultimately insignificant.

Alright, I may have exaggerated (no, never!). Some parts of Practice can be salvaged: the solo in “Envy Life” is half-decent, and I’d be lying if I said the intro and chorus of “Time is Coming” didn’t make me want to get my groove on. I’m not completely sure what getting my groove on entails, but that’s what “Time is Coming” makes me want to do and I’m told it’s a good thing. “The Ballad” sounds a lot like an unofficial prequel to “Return to Serenity,” the godly ballad to be written two albums after this piece of tripe. On its own “The Ballad” isn’t much, but the resemblance to “Return to Serenity” makes it Worthwhile By Association, ltd. That’s about it for highlights. Everything else including the first and title track of Practice What You Preach is forgettable. I kept thinking I’m missing something, but then I figured it out: it’s not me, it’s this album. I was so relieved to find this obvious-in-hindsight closure as to why I could find no joy in this but-shouldn’t-it-be-a-thrash-classic that I declared it thunderously to whoever was in earshot while I beat my chest: IS NO GOOD. ALBUM NO GOOD. IS BAD.

Anyhoo. To rectify this situation, I propose any fans that were bummed by Practice to forget about it and pretend it never happened. Testament has put out an ample amount of other music we can all enjoy, so combined with the fact that you wouldn’t remember a riff off this album if you listened to it ten times in one day, it shouldn’t be a challenge.

So for my first review on the archives, I have chosen to take on one of the most maligned recordings on this site.

I have noticed a clear split of opinion and what I am going to attempt to do is resolve this divide. I don't expect to change anyone's mind either way, nor am I trying to. I simply hope to offer a different perspective, somewhere in between the sides already taken.

Eric Peterson, in the liner notes to the band's first "Greatest Hits" album, admitted that the record was written as an attempt to get some radio airplay, and it is in this confession where one begins to see, in retrospect, the divides that plague this band's existence.

Yes, this is some of the most watered-down production ever heard on a metal album, with its bouncy bass tone, clicky kick drums and edgeless guitar tone. Furthermore, most of this record abandons the relentless pacing of "The Legacy" in favor of a mid-paced, song-oriented vibe.

Yet, and here is what I see as the first great divide, it seems the Skolnick influence has introduced some tasty "hot jazz" elements to the band's brand of thrash. Listen closely to the progessions on the title-track as well as some of the soloing (as well as "Confusion Fusion"). The instrumental track aside, this jazzy influence really adds much of the character to this album, gives it a faster pacing than what was normal for radio and a dynamic all its own that lesser thrash acts populating the scene couldn't find. Without that pull, this album is probably much worse than it is.

Not that this is a horrible record in my opinion. You definitely have some classic Testament here, such as the title track, "Sins Of Omission" and "The Time Is Coming". The thing is, you also get some serious "misses" as well, snoozers such as "Envy Life" and "Greenhouse Effect" that just plod along to their own sonic death about 3 minutes too late. The rest of the tracks are good enough, listenable if not exactly earth shattering. I mean the songs are just fine but that watered down production really does them no favors.

Ultimately, Testament did themselves something of an injustice in releasing this unresolved mish mash of personalities. It's radio-friendly thrash lite wanting to be something more progressive. It's a little too much of this and not enough of that. It's a real inconsistent batch of "hit or miss".

What this album is, most of all is a cross between the album Eric Peterson "thought" the band should make (in pursuit of "exposure") and the album Alex Skolnick wanted to make (something reflecting his own evolving tastes and playing). It ends up being the best and worst of both, which is why so many deride this album as (to quote one reviewer) "pussy thrash" and why this album DIDN'T push Testament to Metallica-like staus, though many regard this as a classic and don't understand why it just never happened for them!

I've lived with this album for over 20 years and it still holds up. It also sits right where it did in the Testament hierarchy when it came out: just as good as 'The Legacy', better than 'The New Order', and their last great album. The toughguy pseudo-death metal stuff on later albums is not only entirely forgettable, but it lacks the songwriting they used to possess. And 'Practice What You Preach' is all about the songs.

Some people expect/want this album to be 100% blazing thrash insanity. It's not and it doesn't try to be. Look to early Sadus if that's what you want in late '80s Cali thrash. (And who doesn't? 'Illusions' and 'D.T.P.' are amazing.) No, Testament were at their most refined here, in terms of playing, production, and songwriting. It's melodic, especially thanks to the nuanced and careful approach of guitarist Alex Skolnick. And then there are the riffs, which this album is built upon. Tons of sturdy, memorable, era-defining riffs. It's pretty much where Metallica's heads where at at the same time period, and while it doesn't best the legends at their game, it comes dangerously close.

High points come with "Perilous Nation", the dark "Envy Life" (which is as far as I like to hear Chuck Billy go in terms of gruff, low vox), "Blessed In Contempt", the storming "Sins Of Omission", and the NWOBHM-like "Nightmare (Coming Back To You)". "Nightmare" is kind of what Metallica might have sounded like in 1989 if they'd kept a more straightforward direction after 'Kill 'Em All'. The only questionable move is "The Ballad". Nothing wrong with great melodi-thrash ballads, especially in an era when many thrash bands cared about songs and catchiness, but "The Ballad" is unfortunately as dull as the title itself.

Alex Perialas' production may be a bit too dry for some, but again, it serves the songs. Greg Christian's bass snaps and pops in the mix with that new-string sound, and the drums actually sound good! (A Perialas weakness...listened to F&J's 'When The Storm Comes Down' lately?)

Some would argue that 'The Ritual' is actually their most melodic, song-oriented album. But it's loaded with bland songs and boring mid-paced rhythms. Two albums before it, 'Practice What You Preach' showed the band's trad-metal influences running strongly through their material, and unlike 'The Ritual' or the impossibly dull 'Souls Of Black' there's a huge variety of tempos and textures on offer. 'PWYP' finds Testament at the height of their game before exhaustion set in, and before lineup changes and different times would degrade the memory of the band's early material.

Mainstream-itis was the disease that hit the thrash scene hard at the end of the 80's. The whole progressive thrash thing wasn't catching on, leaving the remaining bands the options of adapting to the new conditions of the popular music scene or being wiped off the face of the earth. Apparently mid-tempo half-thrash was the daily special on the Bay Area menu and unfortunately, Testament ordered up. After two albums of competent material, the would-be-legendary thrashers put out the mismatched, incongruent Practice What You Preach, most likely to try and emulate the success of Master of Puppets. It almost worked, as PWYP is the band's best-selling album to date (I think), but commercial success never, ever dictates an album's true worth. Listen to this album after The Legacy, The New Order, or any other solid 80's thrash release and see its mediocrity shine through.

Mid-paced is the name of the game here. I'd say that roughly 60-70% of this album is mid-tempoed at best, with many passages being even slower. There's so few actual fast thrash sections that hardcore fans of the first album would be appalled. Now the mid-paced riffing is still generally good, evident in solid title track. But wait for that effectiveness to run out real fast. "Perilous Nation," "Envy Life," and "The Time is Coming" almost crawl in their by-the-numbers halfassedry. Chuck Billy spends a lot of time trying to work on his melodic singing, losing much of his earlier harshness and attempting to replace it with James Hetfield-esque vocal mannerisms and imitation death growls. The riffs come and go without standing out. Even the band's lyrics raise qualms, considering that they've abandoned their occultic niche and adopted a generic attitude towards politics/environmental issues/religion that's been done quite well before Testament ever got their hands dirty in it. "Blessed in Contempt" saves side one from complete mediocrity (well that and the title track), featuring some actual fast thrash, some mighty catchy riffing, and a cool chorus melody to boot.

"Greenhouse Effect" opens side two and I'll be damned if it isn't catchy as fuck. The spiritual predecessor to Annihilator's "Stonewall," this one utilizes the finest in Testament's trademark harmonized riffing plus some pretty sweet gang vocals in the chorus and some nice tempo changes. "Sins of Omission" keeps this rejuvenated feeling alive and well by being the best damn song on here, as well as one of the band's finest. Great lyrics, riffs, solos, vocals, everything. Then there's "The Ballad." Now come on people, am I the only one who thinks this thing was written tongue-in-cheek? Or at least a little bit? I mean it's a power ballad that they fucking call "The Ballad," the lyrics are almost too generic to be taken seriously, there's a long ass, incredibly well-written acoustic intro segment, and it ends as an all-out thrasher. I don't think they took it too seriously. The album ends up with the quick number "Nightmare," which is just cool enough to distract you from the proggy yet stupid instrumental "Confusion Fusion." If the repetition doesn't kill you, the annoying bass will. All in all, about half the album rules and the other half well.... doesn't.

Also let it be noted that Alex Skolnick's presence is worth an extra 20 or so points here. If Eric Peterson played all the leads (I think he actually starts playing some on here), this would have very little going for it. If you thought he shredded it up on the last two albums, PWYP will blow your mind as you hear him rip through some of the finest solos of his career. Quite enough to save this in my point of view.

Conclusion: on one hand, no, this album isn't very good. But on the other hand, it doesn't deserve to get lambasted as much as it does, considering there are some good songs on here. Chances are you won't be putting it in your top ten thrash albums of all time, but you might like a song or two, so I carefully recommend it.

Highlights: "Sins of Omission," "Blessed in Contempt," the title track

Well, first of all let me tell you I am one of those people who hated Chuck Billy for not wanting to sing anymore like he used to do from 1987 to 1992 and selling out with awful grunts during the late ninties. Having said that, you all know by now that I love Chuck Billy for what he has done on the first 5 Testament albums but I truly get nauseous by his vocal performances since 1994. Not forgetting around that time also Skolnick was lost to the cause and replaced by this guy James Murphy, a death metal guitarist who wasn’t able to get a steady job in any band.

Anyway, back to 1989....
The reason ‘Practice What You Preach’ is one of my favorite Testament albums is mostly because –for me- the album had the ultimate thrash metal production. Maybe for some new kids it’s not heavy enough by 2007 standards but I still prefer this natural eighties sound. The guitars sound sharp around the edges and do not – thank god - fill up the entire soundscape. Guitars need sharpness to get that thrash metal definition. Next up is the unequalled Ibanez bass sound of Greg Christian. Again with a lot of definition and a nice metallic edge to it. D.D. Verni from Overkill also perfectly understood how thrash metal bass should sound! Do listen to the pumping metalic bassline of the titletrack or the intro to ‘Perilous Nation’. It can’t get any better than this! Although Louie Clemente has not been the best drummer in thrash metal, his drums sound natural, not triggered at all to hide shortcomings. On top of it all there were Billy’s vocals that were perfectly balanced between both raw and melodic. But never too much of any!

Taking in account just the songmaterial in itself, ‘Practice What You Preach’ is still a good Testament album. Of course it can not compete with the legendary classic ‘The Legacy’ (1987). But whereas ‘The New Order’ had too many clean parts and easy-listening-metal-moments (also too many leads and solos) “Practice What You Preach” was better balanced although it could have done with a slighty larger amount of uptempo songs. Titletrack ‘Practice What You Preach’ is the embodiment of how a mid tempo thrash metal song should be written, performed and produced. Uptempo songs such as ‘Blessed in Contempt’ and ‘Nightmare’ proved the band could still write and play fast material. Furthermore I still get goosebumps when listening to the build-up of ‘Sins Of Omission’ and ‘The Ballad’ did NOT suck because the song holds some great Skolnick details and nicely evolves into a thrashing climax. If there are fillers on this album, only ‘Greenhouse Effect’ and the instrumental ‘Confusion Fusion’ could deserve that qualification.

Plenty of reasons for me - as your see - to consider this abum to be a classic in their discography. Of course I cannot give this album 100 points because there is no such thing as a perfect album and I will always consider ‘The Legacy’ their best effort.

I absolutely worshipped both the Legacy and the New Order when I first got them at the age of 13, and though my love for the New Order has faded, the Legacy is an essential piece of thrash. Practice What You Preach is where Testament shits the bed and lays in it until they decide to finally change the sheets on Low. Granted, Souls of Black and the Ritual have vastly superior moments, they still kind of suck, but they are nowhere nearly as bland and wimpy as on here. Practice What You Preach sounds like the perfect storm of a band rushed by the record company and a gaping dearth of ideas and inspiration.

The nascent problems on the New Order come into full bloom on here. It's such a blight that it sounds as though the whole album has herpes. You've got semi-technical riffs, overly complicated song structures, jarring transitions, and a production so weak that neuters AND castrates nearly the whole fucking band. Even when there are good riffs or catchy melodies they hit you like a Nerf bat rather than a lead pipe--everything is just underwhelming, which is the opposite of what you want in anything that could be defined as "metal." Only Chuck's powerful vocals have a reasonabl amount of power.

The two really good songs on here, "Practice What You Preach" and the godly "Sins of Omission" come with a gang of losers and freaks. The title track is damn catchy, and the lead break is savage. It's a hell of a good way to start the album and gives you hope that the rest of the album will be good. Sadly, it's not until well into the second half when "Sins of Omission" shows up, with everything in between just kind of floating by. "Sins of Omission" has a really infectious opening motif that surfaces time and again, and is somewhat mirrored in the main riff--clearly a harmonious marriage of Skolnick's technical abilities as a budding jazz fusion guitarist, and Eric Peterson's desire to destroy with riffs.

Which brings us to the main problem: the songwriting. Given that Alex Skolnick was already a virtuoso shredded on the Legacy and would later move on to jazz, you can tell he wants to flex his musical muscle on Practice What You Preach. The problem is that there's simply not enough good heavy riffing to go with it and the technical aspect makes it less memorable. The five songs between the title track and "Sins of Omission" just pass through like a fart in the wind.

And the lyrics deserve my hatred as well: concrete society based stuff that places this squarely in its time frame and among their peers of little league wiffle ball thrash. Any of the themes on the first two album were either abstract evil shit, or politically minded society stuff done in a timeless manner. Not here. Some of this shit feels so uninspired and uncreative, like they were not even trying. "Greenhouse Efffect" just makes me want to burn a pile of car tires.

Greg Christian is even more out front and his bass is really audible on here, yet there seems to be no bottom end, just clacking, clanging trebly as all hell bass strings. The drums don't sound quite as bad as Malevolent Creation's Stillborn or Cradle of Filth's Cruelty and the Beast, but they earn their descriptor of "typewriter drums." That's pretty fucking bad when Louie Clemente is already not a stellar drummer and you rob him of the chaos and aggression that made his contributions worthy. Not that the guitars are deserving of the prom queen's maidenhead in anyway, though--even if the riffs were bad ass, that guitar tone just makes my ears and private parts itch like a motherfucker. A song like "Envy Life" or "Blessed in Contempt" with their more brutal riffs and dark subject matter could have been worthy successors to the two previous albums but one would never know with them being wrapped in this pissy dribble production.

Remember how everyone bitched about the instrumental tracks from the New Order? Try on the mostly worthless "The Ballad" for a mandatory and much needed change of pace. If the braindead title or wholly uncreative lyrics couldn't give it away, this one feels like they were pressured into writing a slow song because Metallica. This could have been much better given some fine tuning and actual inspiration, but in a cruelly ironic twist it's one of the most memorable moments on the album.

You've got this one-two punch of nothingburgers in the form of "Nightmare" and "Confusion Fusion" to leave the taste of liquified human feces in your mouth when the album end. "Nightmare" is the musical equivalent of someone running around in a circle with a 6 foot diameter, and "Confusion Fusion" is like they grabbed a handful of half-baked and half-assed riffs and made an instrumental. They could have finished the album with much better aplomb had they switched the order of these songs and ended "Nightmare" with that "hey, buttfuck you" line.

For a band that would do best to avoid the "second rate Metallica' tag, Testament sure seemed to plagiarize ....And Justice for All with this steaming turd. Both that album and Deicide's Legion had technical riffs and dogshit production, therefore in Testament's case it comes down to poor song writing. If Practice What You Preach were a food, it would be the cheapest bologna sandwich soaked in water.

Testament's third album is probably their worst, and unsurprisingly, from the content on here, is their best selling. To say that this is a 'poor man's Master of Puppets' would be correct, as you can tell throughout this album that's what they wanted to sound like. Like on their previous records, Testament didn't make enough riffs to cover all the songs on the album. Whilst previously they filled in the gaps with solos and interludes, on here it is filled up with some half-thrash bullshit, a bad ballad and an instrumental.

The riffs that are on here range from bad to average. Few have any punch to them, and fewer still can still sound good after being dragged out for a whole song, which is what happens on here. There isn't much distinction between many of the riffs, and sometimes I am convinced that a riff in song A is the same as the riff in song B. This is made worse by the, yet again, bad production that castrates all the riffs that are worth listening to. The drums have no weight to them, the bass is barely audible save for a few intros and the guitars seem to be in the background. The guitar tone lacks balls, and sounds generally harmless and weak. And while Billy's vocals were above average on the previous records, on here he decided that Hetfield was an awesome singer and that he would rip off his style. Unfortunately, he sounds more like Hetfield during the Black Album era more than anything else, and in doing so lost any aggression he may have held previously. Sure, he'll do a death metal growl every now and then, but his vocals come off sounding half assed most of the time.

There are four good songs on here. The title track is probably the best, starting with a slow intro before it speeds up into a good thrash riff with some awesome soloing at the end. 'Blessed in Contempt' is an excellent thrasher and probably the most aggressive on the album with some great technical riffing and soloing. 'Sins of Omission' has an intro which is actually good (unlike the ones on the previous record) before it goes into a midpaced riff with some nice guitar work throughout interlaced with Billy's best performance on the album. Finally, there is 'Nightmare (Coming Back to You)', which despite sounding a lot like Metallica is the fastest on the album. It is quite short at only 2:20, but it still remains a great song carried by a solid riff.

But for those four good songs, there are six bad ones. Coming after the title track is 'Perilous Nation' which is a boring song with a main riff that borders on groove at times. It sounds like something off Metallica's Black Album. 'Envy Life' is a boring half-thrash number that despite starting off with a competent death metal growl from Billy doesn't really go anywhere or achieve anything good. 'Time is Coming' sounds as if it is restrained, and is ruined by bad vocals which is a pity as the under verse riff isn't bad. 'Greenhouse Effect' is the second half-thrash number and sounds similar to 'Envy Life' although slowed down, while 'The Ballad' basically rips off 'Sanitarium' with a boring acoustic beginning which later builds up into a boring riff. At 3:49 it sounds like it's going to really pick up and turn into some screaming fucking riffage but what appears is another mediocre riff. Finally, we have the interesting yet sleep inducing instrumental 'Confusion Fusion' which is really just some random soloing with average riffing underneath.

So that's only 40% of the songs that are actually worth listening to. The solos help bring it up a bit but it's not really a good thing when a thrash metal album relies on it's excellent soloing to make it good. Testament tried to imitate Master of Puppets, and while they succeeded at doing that this isn't up to the standards of said album. Recommended? Not really, unless you can find it under $10, as the bad outnumbers the good on this one making it not really worth any more.

[new review, first one written on April 7th, 2004]

Goddamn, this review has been such a pain to write. I cannot seem to find the right words for it. It's just one of them difficult albums, you know, and I'm sure every regular reviewer on here has come across the same thing; when they have an album that is neither great nor horrible and should therefore be something in between, like "average" or "mediocre", but it's still not quite any of those and you don't really know what to make of it. I've owned this album for 2½ years, but things still haven't changed all that much for me.

I just can't quite pin-point my own exact opinion on it - Nightcrawler and UltraBoris both make great points that I can really agree with, but 29% or even 52% just seems a bit too harsh of an overall score for my taste, because there's just too much good music on here for that. As for its true weaknesses, however: Boris mentions "pussy thrash" and "lack of aggression" in his review, while the beast in black complains about it being "soulless" and that "they don't use the riffage to the same effectiveness as other far superior bay area thrashers". About that last point, one of these "far superior bay area thrashers" would have to be the previous album, 'The New Order'. No, that album wasn't exactly the most mind-numbingly pummeling riff-o-rama ever imaginable, but through a rock-solid thrash metal sound and clever riff execution, the band still managed to come up with something thoroughly enjoyable with what little they had. Actually, the riffs on here are arguably more interesting and creative than on the last album, but the problem is that the well-done execution of old is now completely missing.

The production on here is just terrible. It's weak as fuck, it's stale, it's boring. The bass drums are all click-click-click and the guitars are, while still thrashy in tone and distortion, so damn flat and indistinct it's simply unbelievable. "Pop-thrash", I would call this. This sound may have been attained for greater accessibility among non-thrashers (after all, it's their biggest selling album to date), but I cannot see anyone already into thrash metal being any happy with this sound whatsoever. Potential bangers are effectively tamed with it. For example, "Time Is Coming", at 0.30. Your typical simple "banging" thrash metal riff - a very solid one, no wonder it's also a widely used one in the whole thrash metal genre. Like for example in the song "Eternal Nightmare" by the band Vio-lence, at 3.32. Now, which rendition of this riff makes YOUR head bang the hardest? Dingdingding, congratulations sir, you've won something.

Then we arrive at the actual riffs, which are also kind of boring. There is more technicality and creativity on display here than before, but they aren't that particularly amazing this time around either (and again, weakened by the production). Mostly solid, but quite often they go by unnoticed, partly because this album is more melody-based than the last. Thankfully that does not equal more of those abysmally hideous acoustic interludes that polluted the previous album so heavily (on here they are all concentrated into ONE song), it just means that there is more melody of the classic heavy metal variety intermixed with what little thrashing there is to speak of here, and that's what fortunately keeps this album at least somewhat memorable, because the riffs alone surely are not. While not quite comparable to 'Spreading the Disease' as for another melodic thrasher, there's still some pretty good songwriting on display here. Also, Chuck Billy does a very good job with the vocals and shows off great range and melody and Alex Skolnick expectedly delivers his for thrash unusually melodic lead work, this time complementing the already more melodic song material.

But there just isn't all that much to get here. The songs are mostly decent and good listens, but they're certainly nothing earth-shattering. Except for the title track - oh hell fucking Jesus, now THIS is one mean fucking thrasher!! Merciless, bringing on riff after awesome riff and the solo is just...wow. Holy apeshit fuck, this is...art. An epic in itself, complete with plot twists and such. How it oh-so-perfectly interacts with the rhythm work...this nearly 1½ minute work must be heard to be believed. My favorite work by Skolnick and in my top five for metal solos of all time. Now the rest of the album isn't, like, totally different in style, just not anywhere near as good. The only two other songs worth mentioning are "Sins of Omission" which, apart from being more upbeat and aggressive than most of the rest of the album, has a very nice little moody fast-picking intro, and "The Ballad" which is the first in a string of really damn good ballads that are also found on following albums. I have no idea what happened between the last album and this one - this song is just in an entirely different division than anything "balladic" on 'New Order' could ever claim.

So, there you have it. My score of 70% may look a little high in light of the review content, but since I am unable to find anything here that just screams "what the fuck" or something as unbearably boring as "A Day of Reckoning" on the last album (or all the instrumentals, intros, etc.), it gets kinda hard for me. When all is said and done, it's a nice consistent listen throughout, and actually somewhat entertaining and interesting too. I dunno, why don't you give it a chance, ya might just find something you like.

Testament here takes another severe nosedive, after the pretty decent (if underproduced) The Legacy and the recycled-riff-fest boredom of The New Order. Here, we get go-through-the-motions bullshit, a lack of aggression that would make Sacred Reich proud, and poorly designed, entirely forgettable riffs.

There is pretty much one song on here that deserves repeated play, and that is the title track. Of course, it is never good policy to put 90% of the riffs into the opening song - I find myself entirely unable to listen to the album unless I reorder things and put the opener LAST, so that at least I have something to look forward to. In the standard order, there is just nothing to justify keeping it turned on after the first track.

The rest of the album ranges from dumb whiffle-ball thrash that is a 9th-rate Exumer ripoff (Perilous Nation, Blessed in Contempt), stupid "if Metallica can be cockmunches and pollute their albums with anti-metal swinefilth, so can we" (The Ballad, Confusion Fusion - the first being a direct ripoff of the Sanitarium formula, and the second bringing on traces of Orion, though admittedly it isn't nearly as insipid). Then throw in Nightmare, which is fast as fuck, but manages to completely avoid being aggressive - an impressive accomplishment in the field of complete stupidity. Also, a few dumb half-thrash slow numbers that would make Pantera drool: Envy Life, Greenhouse Effect.

The production brings to mind the dregs of Sacred Reich - it's not BAD in any way, just completely pussified, with the guitars lacking distinct character. The opening track features a nifty Slayer-esque intro with a fast banger drum beat over slow chords, but the album never gets nearly that ominous ever again.

This is a worthless album. There is nothing redeeming about it whatsoever. Find yourself some Overkill, and struggle to stay alive.

So this is why Testament have been labeled Metallica rip-offs! Well, I gotta say, this is not entirely Metallica, but everything they do on this album at least nod's in that direction. It's unfortunate that anyone would call them that, but this album did put em in that position. None of the other albums Testament has ever put out can even remotely bare a resemblance to anything Metallica has done. But the thing about this album is that while it does have very Metallica-esque thrash roots, it is one helluva listen.

The cd kicks off with the title track and immediately you have to notice the band seems to want to take Metallica to the next level, with the only thing really noticable, other than the fact you can hear the bass, is the fact that Alex Skolnick kicks the living shit out of Kirk Hammett, if nothing else, but for technical skill. His style is in the vein of Yngwie Malmsteen, but Skolnick is much easier to listen to, he doesn't play to show off, he plays with true feeling. The disc is all moderately paced thrash at it's best, with the one exception being the boringly titled The Ballad. The song is their first attempt at such a song and is nice and layered with acoustic guitars and heart-felt vocals until it kicks into its almost angry outro. The song is the only real stand-out of the bunch, but thats not to say the album isn't a headbangers dream through and through.

With all the air surrounding Testament's so called rip-off album, one has to wonder why this album isn't held as highly as such thrashterpieces as Kill 'Em All and Master of Puppets. It is just as technical, just as fast, just as handbangable, and just as well-produced. Think what you will, but I'm just fine knowing one of the thrash kings borrowed from the big sell-outs themselves.

Testament's Practice What You Preach sold alot of copies and established them as a premier thrash band with mainstream audiences in the late 80s. Though not exactly phenomenal, PWYP is pretty solid thrash that takes the intensity of New Order and glazes it with major label studio production. In some places there are dangerously commercial riffs, which kills a bit of the buzz, yet hardly enough to dull the blow of "Sins of Omission" for instance. PWYP is an essential part to a Testament fan's collection, but hardly a thrash landmark.

The one two punch of Practice What you Preach and Perilous Nation kicks this mother off... two very memorable songs with awesome riffs. Alex Skolnick shreds a whole fucking lot, and (fortunately) there is way less wankery than there was on New Order... the guy can play but who really needs to hear 20 fucking leads in a single song. Not I.

Blessed in Contempt is a total thrasher, along the lines of the Preacher or Eerie Inhabitants. Me like. After this, however, there are a few mediocre songs with very little identity. The kind of mid-paced drudgery that plagued many thrash albums recorded for major labels (Overkill withstanding!). Sins of Omission kicks in and makes everything right again... this is a Testament classic, and a sort of lost gem amongst fans... .and the name of a killer modern thrash band

So yeah, this shit's good, but it signalled a downwards spiral for Testament. They found a second wind with 1994's Low and the rest is history as they say....