The lyrical themes of Practice What You Preach are more about politics and society than the occult themes of the band's previous two albums. The title track of this album was a moderate mainstream rock hit, which featured a music video that gained substantial MTV airplay, as did "The Ballad". By June 1992, Practice What You Preach had sold over 450,000 copies in the United States. Besides the title track, which has been a staple of the band's concert setlists for more than three decades, Testament rarely plays any songs from Practice What You Preach anymore. Out of the album's ten songs, "Confusion Fusion" is the only one that has never been performed in concert. "Envy Life" and "Sins of Omission" had been played live again occasionally in the 2000s and 2010s. The others however, including "Perilous Nation", "Time Is Coming", "Blessed in Contempt", "Greenhouse Effect", "The Ballad" and "Nightmare ", have not been included in performances since the early 1990s.
Reception
Reviews for Practice What You Preach have generally been favorable. Allmusic's Alex Henderson awards it three stars out of five, and for the album, he claims that Testament placed "more emphasis on subjects like freedom of choice, political corruption, hypocrisy, and the effects of greed and avarice" and that "its musical approach is much the same -- under the direction of metal producer Alex Perialas." Practice What You Preach entered the Billboard 200 album charts a month after its release, peaking at number 77 and would remain on the chart for twelve weeks.
Touring and promotion
Testament toured for less than a year to promote Practice What You Preach. They embarked on a one-month U.S. tour in October 1989 with Annihilator and Wrathchild America, and played two shows in California with Nuclear Assault and Voivod in December. The second leg of the Practice What You Preach tour began in January 1990, when Testament was touring Europe with Mortal Sin and Xentrix. Following their first visit to Japan that February, Testament embarked on a two-month U.S. tour with Savatage which featured support from Nuclear Assault, Dead Horse, and Dark Angel. After the Practice What You Preach tour came to an end in May 1990, Testament began work on their fourth studio album Souls of Black.
