Practice What You Preach

Practice What You Preach is the third studio album by American thrash metal band Testament. It was released in August 1989 via Atlantic/Megaforce.

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

Background

While sticking to their thrash metal sound, Practice What You Preach saw Testament shift towards a progressive style and its lyrical themes are more about politics and society than the occult themes of the band's previous two albums—these changes had alienated some early fans of Testament. Reportedly recorded live in the studio, this was the band's last album to be produced by Alex Perialas, and the production vales can be loosely comparted to Flotsam and Jetsam's 1990 album When the Storm Comes Down, which was also produced by Perialas and recorded shortly after the release of Practice What You Preach.[4]

The title track of this album was a moderate mainstream rock hit, which featured a music video that gained substantial MTV airplay, as did "The Ballad".[5] By June 1992, Practice What You Preach had sold over 450,000 copies in the United States.[6]

Besides the title track, which has been a staple of the band's concert setlists for more than three decades, Testament rarely plays any songs from Practice What You Preach anymore. Out of the album's ten songs, "Confusion Fusion" is the only one that has never been performed in concert. "Envy Life" and "Sins of Omission" had been played live again occasionally in the 2000s and 2010s. The others however, including "Perilous Nation" (save for one show in New York in 2008), "Time Is Coming", "Blessed in Contempt", "Greenhouse Effect", "The Ballad" and "Nightmare (Coming Back to You)", have not been included in performances since the early 1990s.[7]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]

Reviews for Practice What You Preach have generally been favorable. Allmusic's Alex Henderson awards it three stars out of five, and for the album, he claims that Testament placed "more emphasis on subjects like freedom of choice, political corruption, hypocrisy, and the effects of greed and avarice" and that "its musical approach is much the same -- under the direction of metal producer Alex Perialas."[8]

Practice What You Preach entered the Billboard 200 album charts a month after its release,[9] peaking at number 77 and would remain on the chart for twelve weeks.[10]

Touring and promotion

Testament toured for less than a year to promote Practice What You Preach. They embarked on a one-month U.S. tour in October 1989 with Annihilator and Wrathchild America (who had just released their respective debut albums Alice in Hell and Climbin' the Walls), and played two shows in California with Nuclear Assault and Voivod in December.[11] The second leg of the Practice What You Preach tour began in January 1990, when Testament was touring Europe with Mortal Sin and Xentrix.[11] Following their first visit to Japan that February, Testament embarked on a two-month U.S. tour with Savatage which featured support from Nuclear Assault, Dead Horse, and Dark Angel.[11] After the Practice What You Preach tour came to an end in May 1990, Testament began work on their fourth studio album Souls of Black.

Track listing

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

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

Personnel
Testament
Additional personnel
  • Mark Walters – backing vocals
  • Bogdan Jablonski – backing vocals
  • Willy Lang – backing vocals
  • Elliot Cahn – backing vocals
  • William Benson – cover art

Charts
Chart (1989) Peak
position
The Billboard 200 77
German Albums Chart 29[12]
UK Albums (OCC)[13] 40

References
  1. http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Testament/Practice_What_You_Preach/246
  2. "Gavin Report 1989-02-17" (PDF). American Radio History. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  3. "Cash Box". archive.org. Retrieved January 16, 2021.
  4. https://www.spirit-of-metal.com/fr/album/When_the_Storm_Comes_Down/8698
  5. Testament Practice What You Preach CD. Testament Practice What You Preach CD. 2010 (retrieved 28 Jan 2010)
  6. Brenda Herrmann (18 Jun 1992). "THRASHING AROUND AT NO. 4". CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Retrieved 11 Jun 2020. Whether the tour and album will finally push Testament over the gold-record mark (500,000 copies sold) remains to be seen. We almost hit it with `Practice What You Preach,` says Skolnick, referring the 1989 album that sold 450,000 copies.
  7. "Testament Tour Statistics". setlist.fm. Retrieved 2014-10-05.
  8. Henderson, Alex. Practice What You Preach at AllMusic. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
  9. "Practice What You Preach - Testament". Billboard. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
  10. "Testament Album & Song Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
  11. "The Legacy / Testament Shows". Metallipromo. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
  12. http://www.officialcharts.de/album.asp?artist=Testament&title=Practice+What+You+Preach&cat=a&country=de
  13. "Testament | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
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