Judas Priest - Ram It Down review
| Band: | Judas Priest |
| Album: | Ram It Down |
| Style: | Heavy metal |
| Release date: | May 17, 1988 |
| Guest review by: | omne metallum |
01. Ram It Down
02. Heavy Metal
03. Love Zone
04. Come And Get It
05. Hard As Iron
06. Blood Red Skies
07. I'm A Rocker
08. Johnny B. Goode [Chuck Berry cover]
09. Love You To Death
10. Monsters Of Rock
11. Night Comes Down [Live at Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, California, USA in May 5, 1984] [2001 Re-Release bonus]
12. Bloodstone [Live at Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, USA in December 12, 1982] [2001 re-release bonus]
For any other band, Ram It Down would probably be considered the crowning achievement and pinnacle of their talents. It is testament to the quality of their canon that this album is crowded out from contention for that title; Judas Priest truly are that great. Coming off the heels of the whipping post that Turbo became, Ram It Down was a breath of fresh air, one that was quickly overshadowed by Painkiller, but hey, that doesn't diminish the quality of this album.
The album features underrated quality tracks that are not given the attention and admiration they would've received had they come from a band not overflowing with hits like Judas Priest. "Heavy Metal" has a good rhythm to it that is as heavy as it is catchy. Anyone who is surprised by the heavier change of tack that Painkiller took must have missed "Hard As Iron", a song that lives up to its name and then some. "Ram It Down" however stands atop even these strong tracks to be the true highlight here; if your fist is not in the air from start to finish, your arm must be broken.
In terms of production this album is in a similar mould to Turbo (unsurprising as it was meant to be the second part of a planned double album), sharing its clean and slick sounds, which work well here. Allom's work behind the production desk serves the album well, allowing the diverse range of tracks (from the up tempo "Ram It Down" to the mid tempo bluesy "Love You To Death") to sound cohesive but not forced into shape to suit the whole.
Given who the members of the band are, it is a given that the musicianship is top notch; the band are on fine form and no one lets the side down. I've seen people say the band were treading water at this point in terms of performance and point to Painkiller as an example of this. This neglects that given the quality the band have, their treading water level of performance is still exceptionally high; yes, Painkiller may be better, but that doesn't necessitate that they must be crap here.
Audience participation is encouraged during "Johnny B. Goode", with listeners encouraged to put their hands over their ears and yell "lalala" throughout. As dated as it is clunky, it could only have been released in the 80s. I am fully aware given the dominant opinion of Ram It Down how odd it is for me to defend the album, but even I can't defend "Johnny B. Goode"; the album would benefit from its omission. "Monsters Of Rock" isn't great; for sake of perspective, it's far away from "Johnny B. Goode" levels of bad, but most times I find myself skipping it rather than listening to it.
Ram It Down is a victim of circumstances really; had it came at another time in the band's career, or from another band entirely, then I'm sure it would have received a better reception than it did. What Ram It Down does, it does well and is a great album with only one or two clunkers contained within; it's not earth shattering like the cover art suggests, but that doesn't mean it won't bring you hours of entertainment.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by omne metallum | 04.06.2020
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
6.8
6.8
|
Rating: 6.8 |
Judas Priest has always been a band that have changed their style a lot - from the early rock albums to harder stuff, then more or less inventing heavy metal before putting out some quite cheesy stuff in the eighties. This resulted, at least in my opinion, that Judas Priest put out many albums that only feel like a transport to the next classic album. 'Ram It Down' is such an album, and I imagine Judas Priest didn't really know where they wanted to go when they wrote the songs for this album. Still - there is no Priest album without good songs and 'Ram It Down' is not an exception. Read more ›› |
Rating:
9.0
9.0
|
Rating: 9.0 |
As Painkiller is possibly Priest's most popular album, Judas Priest must have had an era which lasted for at least three albums in a row, and had quite a same style. Taking a listen through Judas Priest's whole discography is a very interesting experience when you notice how the style, sound and melodies have changed during the years. Ram it Down was the album before Painkiller and these two do really have same kind of sound in them, Painkiller gained a lot more publicity and the band just succeeded better on that one. Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments: 8
Visited by: 40 users
| nikarg Staff Posts: 7345  |
This album is listenable but not good in my opinion. "Ram It Down", "Hard As Iron", and "Blood Red Skies" are worthy of the JP name, and I personally like the "Johnny B. Goode" cover but that's about it. Overall, it is better than Turbo, but that was really easy to achieve. The sound is bad in my ears, as bad as it was in Turbo; too commercial and too artificial. The band was considered to be dead and buried at the time after those two albums. No one expected something as mindblowing as Painkiller to come out from them.
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| sbgmetal Posts: 866  |
The guitar solos in Johnny B. Goode alone are worth listening to the song imo
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62002  |
I agree whit all what old nick said, cover song is best, rest is just album. Other band ok, but not this band
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| christmas.inHell Posts: 204  |
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| Mountain King K i K o Posts: 1361  |
I think it's a pretty decent record and I got hooked on "Love Zone" specially but also on "Heavy Metal" later on. Both songs have great guitar sections. "Blood Red Skies" is one of their best songs ever. If you ask me, I'd play this over a few of their famous records like "Hell Bent...", "Sin After Sin" or "British Steel". I'm not a fan of old school production and "British Steel" doesn't do it for me with the weak sounding drums and uninteresting guitar sound.
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| omne metallum Contributor Posts: 509  |
Written by nikarg on 04.06.2020 at 21:38 Do you think then that the album would have fared worse had it come from someone other than JP? A middling band rather than a big name in the genre.
---- Just because I'm not listening doesn't mean I don't care
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7345 |
Written by omne metallum on 07.06.2020 at 17:35 It works both ways usually, big bands are treated leniently by some (fanboys/girls) and harshly by others (hardcore fans) when they release something that is not so good. And it also depends on what came before and after. Before Ram It Down there was Turbo and after it, it was Painkiller. Ram It Down was not as badly received as Turbo, exactly because of that. Had it been released after Defenders Of The Faith I think the criticism would be as harsh as the one Turbo had, even though RiD is not that bad. The Black Album by Metallica is another example. It was shockingly mediocre but also attracted new fans that had no idea who Metallica was. Now, almost 30 years later, we do consider it to be more good than bad because we have knowledge of the big pile of crap that came after it and because of its importance for attracting an enormous amount of new people to metal music. But I can assure you that when it came out, the vast majority of the band's fans - including myself - wanted to burn the CD at the stake. A significant change in the sound of a big band will always alienate longtime fans, even if the music is still good. Take, for example, Gojira's Magma; not that well received by fans, yet a great album. Then again, you have bands that both change their sound and turn to shit at the same time like In Flames have done. So, to answer your question, I think RiD did not have that much of a great reception because it was definitely not good for JP standards but also because it had a sound that didn't fit JP. Had it been released by another band, it would still be an average album and it would have gone largely unnoticed, I think. There are countless bands from the '80s that released albums with 3 or 4 good tracks and the rest was filler, and very few people know of their existence today.
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| omne metallum Contributor Posts: 509 |
Written by nikarg on 11.06.2020 at 21:10 Ah, I do have the benefit of judging it as a part of the JP discography rather than as a new entry owing to the fact I wasn't even born when it was released haha. You make a good point though, the only part I would add is that sometimes the weight of expectation a big band creates often crushes anything slightly weak upon release; whereas a younger band are not subjected to that extensive criticism so middling material looks better in that light.
---- Just because I'm not listening doesn't mean I don't care
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