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Ram It Down
Studio album by Judas Priest
Released	May 17, 1988
Recorded	1987 Puk Studios , Copenhagen,Denmark
Genre	Heavy metal
Length	58:12
Label	Columbia Records
Producer	Tom Allom
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
Judas Priest chronology
Priest...Live! (1987) Ram It Down (1988) Painkiller (1990)

Ram It Down was an album recorded and released by Judas Priest in 1988. The album was remastered in 2001, with two live tracks added.

In 1986, Priest intended to record a double album called Twin Turbos of which half would be lighter, more commercial rock, and the other half would be similarly polished but heavier and less synth-driven. As it happened, record labels being notoriously timid about double albums, the project was split into two releases, with the heavier Twin Turbos material being relegated to this later album. While it largely failed to capture the metal public's approval, elements such as the more technical drumming, high speeds, and sci-fi themes prefigured their return-to-form classic, Painkiller. Judas Priest had also done a rendition of Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode, which was the only single from this album. This would be the final album involving long-time drummer Dave Holland and producer Tom Allom.

This was the first album on which guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton adopted the use of the sweep-picking technique. It was the incorporation of this into their playing, as well as high-speed, technical soloing, that turned it into shred on this album. An example of Tipton's shredding can be heard unaccompanied during the first forty seconds of the song "Heavy Metal". On the band's next album, Painkiller, another track was featured that contained a thirty-second intro of Downing and Tipton shredding unaccompanied. The tradition of having an unaccompanied shred guitar solo in the first minute of one song on the album was broken on the band's following album, Jugulator.

All songs written by Rob Halford, K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, except where noted.

1. "Ram It Down" – 4:48
2. "Heavy Metal" – 5:58
3. "Love Zone" – 3:58
4. "Come and Get It" – 4:07
5. "Hard as Iron" – 4:09
6. "Blood Red Skies" – 7:50
7. "I'm a Rocker" – 3:58
8. "Johnny Be Good" (Chuck Berry) – 4:39
9. "Love You to Death" – 4:36
10. "Monsters of Rock" – 5:30

11. "Night Comes Down" (Live) – 4:33
12. "Bloodstone" (Live) – 4:05

• A tribute to the song "Blood Red Skies" from this album can be seen in the Japanese comic (Manga) Battle Angel Alita: Last Order. In Book 5, during a battle scene the support character Sechs has the words "Blood Red Skies" and "You won't break me" written on the underside of her boots, a clear reference to the title and part of the lyrics.

• The song Johnny B. Goode was originally made for a video soundtrack, and the song that was supposed to replace it (which would have been a bonus track) was lost somewhere during the Halford-Ripper limbo. This is the reason Ram It Down is the only remastered disc with no bonus "track", just two live tracks.

• The song "I'm a Rocker" references the other Judas Priest song "Thunder Road", which can be found as a bonus track on the album "Point of Entry". In both songs the lyrics read "it's something in the blood [...] Wouldn't change it even if I could".

• Rob Halford: Vocals
• K.K. Downing: Guitars
• Glenn Tipton: Guitars
• Ian Hill: Bass Guitar
• Dave Holland - Drums

• Extensive album info