Judas Priest: Ram It Down [COLUMBIA]

Why you'll love it

This reissue comes on 180g vinyl with a lyric inner sleeve and a download card. The album went gold within two months and was Dave Holland's last record behind the kit.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Printed inner sleeve with lyrics
• Download card included

About the album

Ram It Down started life as half of a double album. Back in 1986 the band planned Twin Turbos, one disc melodic and one heavy, and when that idea was split in two, Turbo got the polish and Ram It Down got the steel. The title track, "Hard As Iron," "Love You To Death" and "Monsters Of Rock" all date from those sessions.

Producer Tom Allom worked with Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing to get the speed back up. "Ram It Down" opens with a Halford scream and doesn't slow for a while, "Heavy Metal" is a statement of intent, Tipton and Downing trade solos all over "I'm A Rocker" and "Come And Get It", and "Blood Red Skies" is a near eight-minute epic. Their version of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" was cut for the 1988 film Johnny Be Good.

It was the band's last album with Allom for 30 years, until he came back for Firepower in 2018. Some producers take a sabbatical; Allom took three decades, which seems fair after a scream like that.

Also at Kops: more Judas Priest on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia / Legacy (cat# 88985390871), a reissue of the 1988 album.