Ram It Down is the eleventh studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 13 May 1988 by Columbia Records. It was the band's last album to feature longtime drummer Dave Holland, and was promoted in Europe and North America with the Mercenaries of Metal Tour.
On 18 July 1988, the album earned gold certification for shipments of over 500,000 copies. The only Ram It Down songs to have ever been played on later tours are "I'm a Rocker", during the 2005 Retribution Tour; and "Blood Red Skies" during the 2011-2012 Epitaph World Tour and the 2021-2022 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour.
Reception
Although Judas Priest's fanbase was big enough to push the album to gold status in North America, critical reaction was fairly negative. Several retrospective reviews have considered the album's songs and performances stale and routine. Allmusic's Steve Huey argued that, despite the band's conscious attempt at "delivering a straight-ahead, much more typical Priest album" compared to Turbo, the album "generally sounds like it's on autopilot" and lacking in personality, with "pretty lackluster" songwriting and "too-polished, mechanical-sounding production", ultimately deeming it the lowest point of Halford's tenure in the band. Adrien Begrand of PopMatters remarked that the Judas Priest of Ram It Down was a "sorry self-parody" that had lost touch with the heavy metal scene, and described the album's material as composed of "Spinal Tap clichés".
Halford's take on the rest of the album is that it was "a very heavy record", with Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing "really rip[ping] it up on a lot of those riffs". Halford said the band recorded a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Play with Fire"; he said it was "a shame" that the song did not make the album.
Track listing
Personnel
;Judas Priest
- Rob Halford – vocals
- Glenn Tipton – guitars
- K. K. Downing – guitars
- Ian Hill – bass
- Dave Holland – drums, drum machine
;Production
- Produced by Tom Allom
- "Johnny B. Goode" co-produced by Glenn Tipton, Rob Halford, and K. K. Downing
- Engineered by Henrik Nilsson
- Additional recording by Bill Dooley
- Equipment supervision by Tom Calcaterra
- Artwork by Mark Wilkinson
Charts
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! scope="row"| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)
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!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| align="center"| 34
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