Song · Testament
“The Ballad” by Testament
From the album Practice What You Preach (1989)
“The Ballad” by Testament appears on 1 radio countdown from 1 station in 1990. It was first released in 1989 on the album Practice What You Preach. Its best result is #436 on the Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,446 hard rock song of all time.
Watch
Video from YouTube (Testament). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
Testament took on heartbreak with "The Ballad", a song about a breakup and the slow climb back out, on Practice What You Preach, the thrash band's third album, which Atlantic and Megaforce released on August 8, 1989. Chuck Billy sings it and wrote the lyric with Alex Skolnick; the music is credited to the band. Alex Perialas produced, recorded and mixed it, with David Pigg and Roy Rowland as associate producers on guitar and lead vocals.
It was one of three singles, along with "Greenhouse Effect" and the title track, that carried the album close to gold and into the Top 100 of the Billboard 200, a first for the band. The record kept its thrash core while letting in traditional metal, jazz fusion and progressive touches, and it traded the occult for politics and society, a turn that won a wider audience and cost them some early fans.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 436 | Z-Rock | Z-Rock Top 1001 Songs of All-Time (1990) | 1000 |
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "The Ballad" by Testament.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.