Testament - Practice what you preach

EugeneSmasher

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Album: Practice what you preach
Band: Testament
Year: 1989
Genre: Thrash metal

This album is really quite rare these days. To avoid entanglements, I'm not going to take a picture from the web. It's a well-known-enough album so finding the album cover won't be difficult. :cool: Anyway, having found this CD at Gramaphone (ironic, eh?) and nearly went crazy, I bought it and got a good listen. This is the second album by Testament I bought, alongside Demonic, which isn't a bad album, just very different. The other two Testament albums I owned were compilations.

I liked this album very much because although it is rather toned-down compared to Testament's other albums (they were known to be unusually brutal for a Bay Area thrash band, though still a fair bit more melodic than Slayer) it is still a good thrash metal album. It has a lot of fast licks, with plenty of melody.

For me, I think 'Practice what you preach' (as in the track) isn't the best song on the album, at least to me. My personal favourite was 'Sins of omission'. I liked most of the songs but I found 'Greenhouse effect' and 'Perilous nation' rather weak.

So the highlights for me would be plentiful, actually, though I would have liked the album to be a little heavier. Furthermore, the guitar tone wasn't particularly heavy either, like I said earlier, toned-down with too little bass and too much treble. The bass guitar was twangy and weak, too. Greg Christian is a great bassist but this album really had him overshadowed.

But this is definitely worth the money, and a good thrash album from the 80s. Very hard to find these days, which was why even a free-flow of beer for a day couldn't match my glee at finding this album. Despite the slightly toned-down style, it is a good album.

What it is: A more melodic album than is usual with Testament, with lyrics more about politics than the usual anti-religious, or occult-influenced lyrical themes. A nice deviation for some, but personally, I prefer them heavier. :mrgreen:

I prefer: better sound production and better guitar tone. More prominent bass guitar.

So yeah, here's my review for Testament's 1989 album. Note that this is my personal review so you might not necessarily agree with everything I say.
 
Haha. My personal favourite is Demonic, actually. It's really the heaviest I've heard from Testament. I haven't managed to find The Formation of Damnation yet but the riffs there are infectious. :cool: Anyone knows where I can buy it? I know Gold Disc at Queensway will probably have it but it is quite expensive there.
 
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