Ram It Down

About

"Ram It Down" is the eleventh studio album by the English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 13 May 1988 by Columbia Record. It was the last Judas Priest album to feature longtime drummer Dave Holland and was promoted through the Mercenaries of Metal Tour in Europe and North America. The album was certified gold in the United States on 18 July 1988 for shipments exceeding 500,000 copie. In 2001, it was remastered and reissued with two bonus track. During the development of the album, Judas Priest originally planned to release a double album titled "Twin Turbos". The project was intended to consist of one disc featuring a more melodic and commercially oriented hard rock style and a second disc containing heavier material with less emphasis on synthesizer. Columbia Records opposed the double-album format, and the material was ultimately divided between the albums "Turbo" (1986) and "Ram It Down" (1988). At least four songs on "Ram It Down" - "Ram It Down", "Hard as Iron", "Love You to Death", and "Monsters of Rock" - were written for the earlier project. "Ram It Down" was the final Judas Priest studio album produced by Tom Allom until "Firepower" in 2018. Allom later returned as co-producer of the live album "A Touch of Evil: Live" in 2009. The album includes a cover version of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode", which had originally been recorded for possible inclusion on the soundtrack of the 1988 comedy film "Johnny Be Good", starring Anthony Michael Hall. The song was released as the album's first single. During the early dates of the band's 1988 tour, Judas Priest performed "Johnny B. Goode", the title track, "Heavy Metal", "Come and Get It", and "I'm a Rocker". In later year, "I'm a Rocker" was performed during the Retribution Tour in 2005, while "Blood Red Skies" appeared in the setlists of the Epitaph World Tour (2011-2012) and the "50 Heavy Metal Years Tour" (2021-2022). The album received mixed to negative critical review. Retrospective assessments have often described the material as less distinctive than earlier Judas Priest release, with some critics characterising the songwriting and production as formulaic. Despite this reception, the album achieved commercial success sufficient to earn gold certification in North America. .

via Last.fm

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