Out of Testament’s classic 80s material, my favourite has
always been the technically masterful Practice What You Preach. The youthful,
thrashing passion from The Legacy and The New Order were met
with refined chops and a killer production job to create one awesome concoction
of melodic metal with an into-the-pit-attitude.
The title track starts the mayhem with wrist-crunching riffing that takes the
piss out of mere air guitarists, let alone actual ones. Chuck Billy shouts and
snarls with frightening power as Petersen and Skolnick punish those guitars
like they were peasants getting their hands on French royalty at the end of
the 18th century. The solos of Skolnick are especially grabbing and melodic,
as his stronghold on varied styles, like jazz, comes out to shine. Greg Christian
is immovable as the bassy foundation and although Louie Clemente was never one
of the flashiest or grooviest of metal drummers, there is nothing missing in
the frantic thrash beats and tasteful double bass flurries.
The remaining nine tunes are marvellous as well, with variety to spare. You
want it slower with a bit more meditative grinder? Put on Envy Life
or Greenhouse Effect (possibly my favourite along with the title track).
Catchy choruses to bang your fist to? Time Is Coming is for you. Quick
beatdowns for the swinging heads? Blessed In Contempt and Nightmare
should do the trick for you with ease. Despite the very corny name, The
Ballad serves all your tear-jerking needs, provided you like your ballads
fast and heavy after some deceiving withholding. Confusion Fusion is
very good for a thrashy instrumental, staying mostly content in blasting out
great riffs instead of an all out widdle-fest.
If you dig melodic yet aggressive metal, Testament’s
Practice What You Preach is definitely for you. I can’t find
a weak song in the bunch and the balance between primitive rage and technical
accomplishments is just about perfect. For those looking into Testament's
for the first time, I think either of the first two records would be a better
starting point, but this is where the thashiness of their 80s material peaked.
After this one, the flavours of traditional metal became more apparent with
Souls Of Black and The Ritual. As great as they are too, for
me, this is still young Testament at its finest.