'80s Metal History (August 8th)

August 8, 1989: Testament released their third studio album "Practice What You Preach" in North America (one day earlier in the UK). Recorded totally live, everyone in the band did their take at the same time and there are no overdubs 🤘 Featuring "The Ballad", "Greenhouse Effect" and the title track, it became the band's first LP to enter the Top 100 on the US Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.

Testament "Practice What You Preach" release information source: [UK] Kerrang! - August 5, 1989; [US] The Hard Report ad - August 11, 1989 (starting in April '89, all US albums were released on Tuesdays).

August 1983: Shortly after the release of Metallica's debut album "Kill 'Em All", Megaforce issued "Whiplash" as the first single. Touring with Raven, they had just played two nights in New York City at L'amour and Cheers.

August 8, 1992: Guns N' Roses and Metallica brought their co-headlining tour to Montreal and chaos ensued with James Hetfield suffering serious burns from a pyro accident and GnR cutting their set short leading to a riot.

August 8, 1988: On the road in the US, Iron Maiden brought the "Seventh Tour Of A Seventh Tour" to Columbia, South Carolina with opener Killer Dwarfs. The North American leg of the tour would end two nights later in Hampton, Virginia.

August 8, 2000: Halford released their debut album "Resurrection" featuring the title track, "Silent Screams" and "The One You Love To Hate", the latter a duet with Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson. Release date source: [US] Metal-is record label promo ad; [UK] Debuted Official album chart on August 19, 2000.

Future Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman released his first studio album "Dragon's Kiss" featuring the track "Dragon Mistress" in 1988. Friedman auditioned for Megadeth a year later and joined the band in February 1990.

Jason Becker released his only solo album "Perpetual Burn" in 1988 before his diagnosis with ALS the following year. Fellow Cacophony guitarist Marty Friedman co-produced and performed on this record.

King Kobra's "Hunger" released in 1985 was written by members of Kick Axe, who a year later chose to record the song themselves for "The Transformers: The Movie" soundtrack, under the alias Spectre General.

Happy Birthday to former King Diamond bassist [1988-2007] Hal Patino (August 8, 1956).

Happy Birthday to drummer Anton Fig (August 8, 1952) who played on Ace Frehley's solo albums.

Remembering former Judas Priest drummer [1977–79] Les Binks who would have celebrated a birthday today (August 8, 1951). With Rob Halford, Les co-wrote the Priest classic "Beyond The Realms Of Death". Les died in 2025. R.I.P.

August 8, 1985: Cats were running scared in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as RATT brought the "World Infestation" Tour to the Riverside Centroplex.

August 8, 1989: W.A.S.P. brought the "89 & Headless" Tour home to Southern California for a show at the Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica. The tour would end five nights later in Seattle.