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Class 6(66)

Testament: Practice what you preach

16/04/10  ||  Smalley

Introduction

My apologies to all the Testament fan-legions out there, but I’m not too keen on this band any more; besides the excellent “The gathering”, every single album they’ve released post-80’s has been a disappointment, and I’m not even big on “The legacy” or “The new order” that much these days! Sorry guys, but the first two albums definitely had problems with their guitar sound/songwriting (more on those in a moment), problems which kept them from reaching their full potential, and I won’t be writing reviews to have ‘em covered again on GD. Fortunately though, Test fixed all that at the end of the decade of excess with “Practice what you preach”, and briefly became a good band with this rock-solid, all-around satisfying thrasher. Of course, they pissed all of that away over the course of the next two decades, but I can always make-believe that there’s a parallel universe out there, one where Testament stayed as good as they got on “Practice”. A metalhead can dream, can’t he…?

Songwriting

8.5. The Testament albums prior to “Practice” had plenty of energy all-throughout, but could often get overly flat and monotonous with their songwriting, lacking the variation necessary to be a truly engaging listen. For “Practice”, however, Testament dramatically upped the song dynamics, and while they slowed down the tempos a bit to pull that off, the songs here still have plenty of energy, and anyway, a choice between faster songs and better songs is no choice at all, right? Of course not, and not only did Testament write more intricate songs here, they also kept every one of ‘em flowing extremely smoothly and logically, all of which results in a much more compelling, entertaining record than the previous Testaments. While these aren’t quite the most amazing songs ever (which is why my score here isn’t a 10), all the pieces just fit , and for what the album is, I’d have a hard time denying its songwriting is basically flawless.

Production

8. The drums have that classic, reverb-y “thump” you expect from vintage 80’s thrash, so you can hear them quite nicely, the lead guitar sounds good, and I love how high in the mix the bass is, almost as fucken high as the rhythm guitar is! I like to imagine it was Testament’s response to the near non-bass of the previous year’s “…And justice for all”: “So you don’t want bass on your album, Metallica? Fine then, we’ll just DOUBLE the bass on ours!!!”. Most importantly of all, however, is how Eric Peterson’s rhythm guitar was finally given the thicker, punchier sound that it needed, having been disappointingly thin on the previous albums, especially with “The legacy”. I guess Testament producer Alex Perialas finally came to his senses, eh? Sadly, the band would go right back to a crappy rhythm guitar sound the very next year, but still, this was nice while it lasted.

Guitars

9. Eric Peterson does a good job of playing the slower, catchier riffs of “Practice”, generally not going all-out with teh shred, but doing very well for the record nonetheless. However, Peterson’s skills are definitely upstaged by guitar virtuoso Alex Skolnick’s intense, incredibly energetic soloage; Skolnick’s always contributed good solos to every single Testament album he’s been on (regardless of its quality), and “Practice” is no exception, and may even have his finest guitar work to date. And, even when Skolnick isn’t taking center-stage with a solo that lasts for forever (in a good way), he still adds plenty of spice to the songs with little dabs of soloing here and there. But seriously, fast-forward to the big solo at 1:10 on “Nightmare (coming back to you)”, and just try telling me Skolnick isn’t an awesome guitarist. Filthy liar. Extra kudos to this section for those tuneful acoustic guitars at the beginning of “The ballad”.

Vocals

5.5. Chuck Billy always was a much better growler than he was a “singer”, and he wouldn’t start growling full-time for another three albums (fat lot of good that did “Low” though, haha), so that kind of sucks. However, there are a few growls here and there on “Practice”, like on the title track, “Envy life”, and “Sins of omission”, which is very, very surprising to hear on an 80’s thrash album, and very welcome as well. But besides that, though energetic, Chuck’s vocals are a bit too nasally, whiny, and high-pitched, so I can take or leave this aspect of “Practice”.

Bass

9.5. As I said before, the incredibly prominent bass sound here is just great, and I also like the particular “gurgle” quality it has as well. Greg Christian also puts a whole lot of energy into his playing, and does more than just match what the rhythm guitar’s doing, so I have nothing but praise for this section.

Drums

6. Louie Clemente basically just does an “enough-to-get-by” sort of job with the percussion; there are a few good, energetic fills here and there, but his drumming is mostly just adequate. Whatever, the guitarists do a more than good enough job to make up for that.

Lyrics

7.5. Testament basically switched from the darker, occult-ish lyrics of the previous two records to more political, society-oriented shit, like on “Greenhouse effect”: “Fools!/The ones who stray/The rain forest burns away/Know!/What to believe…/This is the air we breathe/So!/The world we know/Is dying slow in South America/Flames!/Are burning down…/All the trees to the ground!”. No one ever really listened to Test for the lyrics, but it’s all basically well-written stuff here, hence, the score you see above.

Cover art

8.5. Five cracked, faceless, dried-up dirt figures look up to the sky, holding their arms out to plead for some relief from the desert drought, their shadows eerily forming crosses on the ground, as creepy faces lurking in the clouds look on (a concept Testament would re-use on the “Souls of black” cover), as if they’re passing a final, silent judgment. Very cool and very memorable.

Logo

9. Big “T” at the beginning, really big “A” in the middle, and a big “T” at the end, with a bar hovering above it all across the top, and colored a strong silver to finish it all off. A classic, iconic logo, and one of the better ones to emerge out of the old-school thrash movement.

Booklet

N/A. Again, sorry, but I don’t keep booklets. I do remember this one having the complete lyrics and a picture of each band member performing in concert (individually), and not much else besides that.

Overall and ending rant

“Practice what you preach” occupies a unique place in the history of metal; though it doesn’t really have any surprises in store, there’s no denying it’s an under-appreciated, satisfying as hell album, and also one of Testament’s very few good albums (along with “The gathering”, which I wouldn’t mind Class6’ing some day either; sure, I won’t be able to match Lumby’s enthusiasm, but it’ll be fun anyway). In conclusion, my thanks goes to K for deleting his Class6 write-ups of “The legacy”/“The new order”, since now this section has the one chapter of old Testament worthy of being called a classic.

8,5

  • Information
  • Released: 1989
  • Label: Atlantic/Megaforce
  • Website: Testament MySpace
  • Band
  • Chuck Billy: vocals
  • Alex Skolnick: guitar
  • Eric Peterson: guitar
  • Greg Christian: bass
  • Louie Clemente: drums
  • Tracklist
  • 01. Practice What You Preach
  • 02. Perilous Nation
  • 03. Envy Life
  • 04. Time Is Coming
  • 05. Blessed In Contempt
  • 06. Greenhouse Effect
  • 07. Sins Of Omission
  • 08. The Ballad
  • 09. Nightmare (Coming Back To You)
  • 10. Confusion Fusion

Class 6(66) -reviews

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