'Practice What You Preach' is the album that presented Testament to me in the early 1990s. Because of that fact it is one of my favourite Testament platters of all time. I'm trying to give it an opinion that is detached from history that I have with the album. Might be a bit tough task.

People thought of this album, and still think I presume, as a 'Master of Puppets' clone (that's the classic Metallica album from 1986, if you don't know for some weird reason). Why the fuck, that's beyond my understanding. Maybe it's because Testament slowed down and got more technical on this album. Musically, there's no commonality between the two. Except they're both metal, beavis&butthead-hehe. Shit, even the both predecessor albums ('Legacy' [1987] and 'The New Order' [1989]) were released after 'Master of Puppets'...

Anyway, 'Practice...' is an album full of catchy songs. From the opening of the title track to the last note of instrumental 'Confusion Fusion'. Although the songs are generally slower than on two predecessors, it's thoroughly headbang-inducing stuff, but definitely less violent than its predecessors. Many of the songs are pretty straight-ahead moshers, e.g. 'Perilous Nation', 'Time Is Coming', 'Blessed in Contempt' and 'Greenhouse Effect'. But then again, Testament weren't any kind of progressive band, huh?! 'Envy Life' brings a word to my mind: "groovy"! And not in any bloody flower rock way; it's pure fucking thrash. Maybe that was enough for thrashers to call Testament "accessible" now. 'The Ballad', that one surely was! Beautiful (yep, you read right) acoustic intro and solos, very laid-back feeling before the last two minutes of headbanging. Short 'n' sweet thrash attack 'Nightmare (Coming back to You)' probably should end the album. While 'Confusion Fusion' is a nice idea and a catchy piece for an instrumental, it just feels a bit out of place.

Testament took more real approach with most of the lyrics here. 'Greenhouse Effect' is about what the title does suggest. There are also politics, general human stupidity and such themes. 'Envy Life' is the only song with lyrics about magic & spirits, from which the band was know for. Chuck Billy went more melodic at times. On 'The Ballad' he actually tries some singing. It's not a triumph, but props for sounding true. He doesn't present his high screams on this album, but to tell the truth, I don't miss them at all. Chuck sound himself, and not like a million and one death metal growlers or thrash barkers.

The biggest, and almost the sole, shortcoming is the production. Drums are in the front, guitars and bass in the back of the mix. I like the wicked "springy" (I don't mean a season) bass sound, even though it doesn't go into low frequencies. Those are more like handled by kick drums and guitars. The guitars... I love the tone of them, too! Very warm, fucking "metal" actually, with screeches of course. Too loud drums are a bit clicky, but still powerful, thanks to their loudness I guess. Musicianship is high for every guitar player (yep, the bassist too), but drums plying is simple, although not bad in any case.

There is not a single bad songs on the album, and it's all finely performed, but the production could have been so much more powerful. These 10 songs aren't all classics, but still the album is, despite its shortcomings. The album which I still love and listen to after 17 years.

Rating: 10- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
06/10/2007 21:46