After the failed experiment of Turbo, Judas Priest toned down the synths and returned to the basics, delivering a straight-ahead, much more typical Priest album with Ram It Down.
The band's fan base was still devoted enough to consistently push each new album past the platinum sales mark, and perhaps that's part of the reason Ram It Down generally sounds like it's on autopilot.
While there are some well-constructed songs, they tend toward the generic, and the songwriting is pretty lackluster overall, with the up-tempo title track easily standing out as the best tune here.
And even though Ram It Down backed away from the territory explored on Turbo, much of the album still has a too-polished, mechanical-sounding production, especially the drums.
Lyrically, Ram It Down is firmly entrenched in adolescent theatrics that lack the personality or toughness of Priest's best anthems, which -- coupled with the lack of much truly memorable music -- makes the record sound cynical and insincere, the lowest point in the Rob Halford era.
Further debits are given for the cover of "Johnny B.
Goode.".
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ram It DownK.K. Downing, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton | Judas Priest | Play | 04:48 | 11 MB | 35 MB |
| 2 | Heavy MetalK.K. Downing, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton | Judas Priest | Play | 05:58 | 13 MB | 38 MB |
| 3 | Love ZoneK.K. Downing, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton | Judas Priest | Play | 03:58 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 4 | Come and Get ItK.K. Downing, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton | Judas Priest | Play | 04:07 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 5 | Hard as IronK.K. Downing, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton | Judas Priest | Play | 04:09 | 9 MB | 28 MB |
| 6 | I'm a RockerK.K. Downing, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton | Judas Priest | Play | 03:58 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 7 | Johnny B. GoodeChuck Berry | Judas Priest | Play | 04:39 | 10 MB | 31 MB |
| 8 | Love You to DeathK.K. Downing, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton | Judas Priest | Play | 04:36 | 10 MB | 31 MB |
| 9 | Monsters of RockK.K. Downing, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton | Judas Priest | Play | 05:30 | 12 MB | 36 MB |
| 41 mins | 95 MB | |||||
| 41 mins | 283 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom (Colonel) Allom | Producer |
| 2 | Chuck Berry | Composer |
| 3 | K.K. Downing | Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Producer |
| 4 | Rob Halford | Arranger, Composer, Producer, Vocals |
| 5 | Ian Hill | Bass, Guitar (Bass) |
| 6 | Henrik Hilsson | Engineer |
| 7 | Dave Holland | Drums |
| 8 | Judas Priest | Primary Artist |
| 9 | Glenn Tipton | Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Producer, Vocals |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |