This is a great cd one of their heavist thats for sure ram it down great song and the guitar solo on the second song is awesome this is in my top five great albums by priest along with defenders of the faith screaming for vengence and my all time favorite sad wings of destiny these are essential priest albums oh and staind class better than you better than me great tune and thats the song the two kids committed suicide over one anyway the other one is terribly disfigured anyway great album
August 1, 2008 |  | I wish i could give it 3.5 stars |  |
Its a pretty good CD. The drum machine sounds retarded, but true gems like "Ram it Down" "Heavy Metal" "Love Zone", and "Bloodstone (Live)" save this CD. Robs voice sounds pretty good, but not as good as it does in Painkiller. He is still the best vocalist of all time. Glenn, KK and Ian are still great, as they always have been, and alays will be. Still a good CD. I would reccomend it to all Priest fans
April 21, 2008| | | awesome despite johnny b goode | |
This album is great but it does suffer from a little too much of a commercial sound (e.g. turbo lover).
March 27, 2008 | | One of Judas Priest's WORST albums | |
Seriously, calling this "one of Judas Priest's best albums" is an insult to the intelligence of heavy metal fans.
DRUM MACHINES everywhere. Horrible! They replaced the world's most boring drummer (Dave Holland) with a drum machine, and it says something about his drumming that most reviewers here seem to have not noticed this fact. Tom Allom, who produced JP's albums from British Steel to this one, together with the Halford/Downing/Tipton songwriting combination, seem to have stripped out all of the interesting rhythm section stuff out of Priest's work to dumb it down for the commercial scene and to put all the attention on the guitars and vocals. I'm not a drummer (I play guitar) but any metal fan has to be bored by what Hill and Holland provide on those albums. It's a shame because Hill is a good bass player and Holland's work in his previous band was more interesting than his work with Priest. In any case he's been replaced with a machine here and by all accounts has no recollection of playing anything for Ram It Down.
As far as the songwriting goes, it's leftovers and filler, and from Turbo no less (an album that, together with Priest Live!, shares the honours for lamest JP album - at least Point of Entry has some cool tracks. Comparing it favourably to Painkiller, or even the Ripper-era stuff, is just pathetic. If you want '80s pop metal go listen to Motley Crue and Skid Row, they were much better at it than Judas Priest.
I say this as someone who LOVES Judas Priest's work before Turbo and after Ram It Down, who owns the Metalogy box, books on Priest, the Halford and Fight albums, Tipton's solo album, etc. There are some glimmers of good stuff, mainly in terms of vocals and an occassional riff, on Ram It Down and (more so) Turbo, but to consider them "among the best" of their albums is an insult to brilliant albums like Sad Wings of Destiny, Sin After Sin, Stained Class, Hell Bent For Leather, British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith, and Painkiller.
February 9, 2008 | | Better than Turbo...but that's not saying a whole lot | |
This album was released in early 88'...almost 20 years. How time flies. Growing up in the 80's, I discovered Priest around 81' after hearing "Steel" and bought every successive album and even their 70's heyday material soon after 81'. However, I immediately lost interest in the band when I heard "Turbo." It sounded like they went "Cinderella" on us. I'm embarrassed that I still have that dusty cassette over 20 years later. Anyhow, "Ram it down" left me scratching my head. The guitar and vocals were truly great heavy metal experiences for any listener on most of the songs, especially the title track. What killed it was the lame Chuck Berry tune from a cheesy Anthony Michael Hall flick by the same name. Where does this fit in with the rest of the album? The lyrics were very infantile too. "Ram it down....straight into the heart of this town." Sounds like something a 4th grader wrote during lunch period.
January 11, 2008More reviews at Amazon.com ...
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