Ram It Down finds Judas Priest trying to tie together their more recent commercial direction with the heavier sounds of the band’s early 80s period. In hindsight, one can look back and see what they were trying to, but st the time it still seemed.a sellout record and didn’t quite cut the mustard in regards to being a serious metal album. I suspect the band were struggling with which direction to take things. Thrash metal was at its commercial height in 1988 and the LA metal sound they rode to arena success with Turbo was starting to show signs that it’s time was nearing an end. Sounds like plenty of internal problems in the band at this time as well, most pointedly drummer Dave Holland was having health issues and the band ended up programming much of the drums here. All these things said, it’s still an enjoyable listen every once in a while, just not one of Priest’s best.
1988 US pressing on Columbia and it’s quite nice.
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