TESTAMENT — Practice What You Preach (review)

TESTAMENT — Practice What You Preach album cover

Album · 1989 · Thrash Metal

3.5/5 · 2018-09-22
UMUR

"Practice What You Preach" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US, California based thrash metal act Testament. The album was released through Atlantic/Megaforce Records in August 1989. The band enjoyed great success with their first two albums, and they were on a roll at this point in their career, which they took full advantage of by releasing their third album in little over two years.

"Practice What You Preach" is what I´d call a natural progression from the first two albums. Stylistically it´s slightly less raw sounding, a little more melodic, features a cleaner sounding production, and overall just sounds a bit more professional. The music style is still thrash metal with the distinct sound that Testament were known for in those days, but they´ve incorporated a few more traditional heavy metal elements here than they did on the two predecessors. The opening title track is one of the highlights, but the material is generally well written, although not as immediately catchy as much of the material on the two predecessors. The quality does drop a bit the longer you get into the album though, and to my ears the first five tracks (Side 1 of the vinyl version) are the strongest. After that the songwriting becomes a bit more patchy.

The cleaner sound production (and especially the clicky kick drums) has the effect that the music sometimes lacks a bit of punch and rawness though. It´s almost as if the cleaner and more professional sounding production isn´t doing the music any favors.

The lineup is still the same as the lineup who recorded the two predecessors, and therefore we are treated to the same highly skilled lead guitar playing by Alex Skolnick, the powerful and distinct sounding vocals by Chuck Billy (a little more melodic oriented this time around), but unfortunately also the clumsy and one-dimensional drumming by Louie Clemente. So no surprises there. Overall "Practice What You Preach" is another quality thrash metal release by Testament, but to my ears it´s a slight step down in songwriting quality from the two more immediate and raw sounding predecessors. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

more than 2 years ago
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UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I don´t really hear the Metallica similarities other than they were both contemporary thrash metal acts from the US. I´m not a major fan of Testament either, but I do enjoy some of their albums. This one is not one of them. At leats not to the extent that it´s an album I would put on at home.

siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Ugh. Good review but Testament were WAY too much of a Metallica clone for my tastes. As much as i've tried to get into them they repel me in every way. They do have some great works in the 21st century though. I love The Gathering and The Formation Of Damnation. This early stuff though? Can't hang with it :(