Released: on August 4, 1989
Testament had already shown how much detail it could pack into thrash on The Legacy and The New Order. By 1989, the tougher job was getting listeners inside the songs faster. Practice What You Preach asks one question: how could Testament give people a clear way in with all five players still filling every corner?
The title track answers first. Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick build the main riff from clipped low-string bursts and wide chord hits. Its shape is clear before Chuck Billy enters. He delivers the verses in short lines, then turns the title into a command made for a crowd to throw back. Skolnick begins his solo with a long melodic phrase and gradually works toward the faster runs. Even at its busiest, the lead keeps its connection to the song.
Part of the solution came from the recording floor. At Fantasy Studios, producer Alex Perialas ran the band through the complete set twice a day for two weeks, replacing the previous keeper whenever a better full performance turned up. The vocals were overdubbed; the instrumental tracks and guitar solos were played live. That method explains why the rhythm section remains so exposed. “Perilous Nation” opens with Greg Christian working through a bass figure with shifting accents. Louie Clemente enters next, followed by the guitars. The verse takes its time arriving. Each new layer remains distinct.
Perialas’s mix makes the process easy to hear. The guitars have a dry grain, Clemente’s kick has a pointed click, and Christian’s bass sits beneath the riffs instead of vanishing into them. The lean sound leaves room for the arrangements. “Time Is Coming” moves from jagged guitar figures into a chorus widened by layered vocals. “Envy Life” begins with Billy’s low growl, then opens around the “house of pain” section with backing voices and a simpler pulse.
The words follow the same push toward clarity. Hypocrisy, political control, and personal responsibility take over from much of the occult imagery surrounding the first two albums. “Greenhouse Effect” turns environmental destruction into a direct warning, driven by a steady mid-tempo churn and a title repeated like an alarm. “Blessed in Contempt” deals with abuse and the darkness it leaves behind, ending with an eerie vocal passage after the sharper thrash sections have fallen away. Billy’s bark stays in place, while longer phrases and carefully placed gaps allow the lyrics to register.
“The Ballad” tests how far this approach can go. Its first half uses acoustic guitar and longer vocal lines, then the second half changes shape as the distortion arrives and the pace picks up. Skolnick’s solo rises with the arrangement instead of sitting apart as a showcase. “Confusion Fusion” removes the vocal landmark entirely. Bass and drums establish the base while the guitars gradually take over, allowing the band to move through several ideas in barely three minutes.
The search for clarity occasionally runs against Testament’s instinct to keep adding. “Perilous Nation” collects more sections than its main hook needs, and a few mid-tempo passages repeat past their best idea. Even there, the live performances keep the songs from sounding pieced together.
So how did Testament give listeners a clear way into such busy music? The repeated riffs and direct choruses became fixed points. Around them, Christian’s audible bass, Clemente’s rhythmic shifts, Skolnick’s melodic leads, and the energy of the full-band takes could keep moving. Practice What You Preach kept the detail and gave every song a reliable route back to its central idea.
Written by Rob Joncas for DeadNoteMedia.
Artist information and music courtesy of the band.
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