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Practice What You Preach

Description

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Media Type: CD
Artist: TESTAMENT
Title: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH
Street Release Date: 08/08/1989
Domestic
Genre: HEAVY METAL

Reviews

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-06-13
Summary: "ladies and gentlemen..."

I have to admit that I am not an aficionado of thrash or speed metal. I worship mozart for starters. However, I am a big fan of a good electric guitar. Now there are many thrash bands that have come of the the same era as well as area, but Metallica usually takes the cake. Testament is every bit as good and Skolnick is tremendous; his playing simply stands out and would prick the ears of any classically trained musician. Heavy without losing virtuosity.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-05-01
Summary: "Testaments Finest Moment"

In the annuals of thrash, Testament have secured a permanent place as one of its best practitioners. In no particular order is my list of essential thrash, and each band's finest recorded moment:

1. Metallica - Master Of Puppets (RIP Cliff Burton)
2. Testament - See my review title
3. Exodus - Bonded By Blood/Fabulous Disaster (it's a tie!)
4. Megadeth - Rust In Peace
5. Anthrax - Among The Living

To me, Testament's Practice What You Preach is like Rush's Moving Pictures, both albums so good, so polished, so well executed and written, that it was hard to imagine either band writing something better. In this reviewers opinion neither band did. Alex Skolnick made steady progressions from album to album and on Practice his technique was honed to a sharp edge. His leads are simply blazing on Practice. The title track features the finest fretwork of his career, from an incredibly fast thematic solo intro, to the solo itself which features a smorgasbord of rock guitar lead playing: speed picking, sweep picking, legato, string tapping, and subtle whammy bar work. Yes folks, all of those techniques exist in one, very explosive solo. But good solos are nothing without good songs to play them to, and here Testament doesn't disappoint. There is simply not a bad song on Practice, it's an album you put on your CD player or you MP3 player and listen to it from the first song to the last. 21 years later and the album hasn't lost a step. Simply shames the entire Neu Metal genre and the other garbage that passes for "heavy metal" these days.

Even though Skolnick is the "star" of Testament so to speak, and now has become a very accomplished jazz musician I might add, the rest of the band is in fine form as well. From what I understand it's Eric Peterson who is the mastermind behind many of Testaments best songs, even though he was overshadowed by Skolnicks larger than life lead playing. Chuck Billy is the quintessential thrash singer with more than a passing similarity to the vocal style of James Hetfield. Testament have even been called Metallica Ripoffs, but the fact is both bands were formed around the same time, but it is Metallica who made it big before Testament even released their first album. Had Testament struck gold first people would have been saying the same about Metallica. Yes at times they sound the same, but is that actually a bad thing, I think not!! Louie Clemente and Greg Christian work to keep the bottom end rock solid. It should be noted only Chuck and Eric have been with Testament for every album.

What more can I say, not much, just that if you have any passing interest in thrash, maybe you're just getting your feet wet in the genre, this album needs to be at the very top of your must buy list. First I owned the album on vinyl, then tape, then CD, and now as MP3's on my cell phone/laptop, with the one constant being it's never left my side since its release in 89.

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Rating: 2 / 5
Date: 2009-12-02
Summary: "Testament falls off with this one."

Thier first two albums are great, essential even, but this one puts me to sleep. Its overproduced, the snare drum sounds like a little click, the guitars and bass are way too clean, this is not how you want thash to sound. The songs are pretty boring too, not very memorable.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-10-10
Summary: "Thrashy Goodness"

To me this is one of the most accessible, perhaps almost commercial thrash albums there is...in '89 perhaps it was, not sure but it was supposed to bring them into the group of Metallica/Megadeth/Anthrax league, and to me bands like Testament, Overkill, even Exodus deserved more respect but seemed to just fall short.

The overall feel of this album is very bright and straightforward for the most part, I love the bass sound of this CD...at high volume it can almost have a very live feel to it...very in your face, but at the same time the songs are interesting and catchy enough so as to hold your attention for song after song. Each song has it's own feel to so it's not just thrash after thrash song, it changes speeds and there are differnet tones thrown in, it's just a really interesting album to listen to for me anyway.

Favs include just about everything I love "Perilous Nation", "Envy Life", and of course the title track. "Sins Of Ommision" is probably the best of the bunch also. They do a ballad called "The Ballad" that is right up there with any Metallica ballad IMO also. Lot of great guitar work on here too of course which Testament is known for, a ballad, and some somewhat social and environmental issues that are kept on the light side, but represent the full force of this classic release.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-01-04
Summary: "Heavy, Amazing, Thrashy, What More Can I Say"

This has to be one of the best thrash albums of all time.I think that this is testaments best album yet. Even though all of there stuff is great. If you are a fan of thrash and you find this in your local record store I would pick this up FOR SURE. Every track rocks, but I thank the tital track is the best. Pick it up you will love it.