Where the lack of time and preparation may have marred portions (small portions, to be sure) of the sophomore effort by California’s Testament, the grind of tour/record/tour made the third time the charm. Practice What You Preach sounds fully realized, the band settling into their space, injecting more fusion and progressive riffs and arrangements while tightening the songwriting to produce the band’s most mainstream and successful album to date. Sure, you can hear obvious capitulations to getting on rock radio and MTV, but the anger and aggression of the heavy tracks are uncompromising, and as my introduction to the band it was the perfect entry point, allowing me to hear the balance between their earlier chaos and future major label tribulations.

Continue reading “Testament: Practice What You Preach (1989)”

It was the cover more than anything else. I started my affair with California’s Testament with Practice What You Preach for the same reason, but there was something about the glass of the logo, the blues and blacks that made me think The New Order was colder, a more clinical and icy experience than what I already knew. I don’t recall hearing any of the tracks beforehand; radio was miles away from this and MTV was busy with the new album so I took a chance, as you did back then. What I got depends on your starting point: it was indeed a colder, icy and more clinical thrash attack than the more streamlined and accessible approach of the band’s breakout. But compared to The Legacy, you can hear the band stretching into an identifiable form, turning into what would break them to the wider world just a year later.

Continue reading “Testament: The New Order (1988)”

Why do we consume what we consume? Sometimes it’s been a week, you know? And you just want to sink into familiarity, not worry about anything other than indulging youthful nostalgia. Which in my case is very much metal from the 80s. I was never one to hold onto the things from my childhood, meaning all the cassettes and albums I collected as a kid were tossed as soon as I started moving from apartment to apartment, and then got married, and moved again. So it’s been a slow re-build of some of my beloved thrash albums, starting with Testament, who Nuclear Blast saw fit to start re-issuing on vinyl last year. And even though it was the fourth album by them I got as a kid, we’ll start at the beginning with The Legacy, because it’s only gotten better over the years.

Continue reading “Testament: The Legacy (1987)”