JUDAS PRIEST — Ram It Down (review)

Album · 1988 · Heavy Metal

3.5/5 · 2021-10-18
Warthur

Judas Priest had spent much of the 1980s balancing more hard-edged material with poppier, more accessible numbers, at least in terms of their studio output. Their live shows from the era showed how their more radio-friendly material could really get an extra bit of grit to it when given a more muscular spin, so it's clear where their hearts actually lay - but you can't blame them for catching the wave of metal's commercial peak when they could and securing their future to allow them to keep at their craft going forwards.

Still, it was evident from Turbo that they'd gone about as far in the pop-metal direction as they viably could. It would be on Painkiller that they'd produce a furious metal release which showed that they'd lost none of their bite over the years and could go toe-to-toe with any of their younger competitors, but it's on Ram It Down that they start charting the course back there.

However, don't expect anything as thunderously heavy as the title track (or the glorious Mark Wilkinson cover art) might lead you to expect. You see, Judas Priest hadn't yet picked up the secret weapon which so refreshed their sound on Painkiller - namely, Scott Travis, whose more modern approach to the drummer's craft was the special ingredient that made that whole album come together.

At the time the album was recorded, Dave Holland was running into health and family issues which forced him to cut back his involvement and ultimately led to him leaving the band. Between Holland being exposed as a child abuser in later years and Scott just plain being a better drummer than him, Holland's departure was all for the good once it happened - the problem here was that he had one foot in and one foot out of the band, which in practice means that much of the album was recorded with a drum machine.

You can get snotty here and suggest that the fact that the drum machine could fill in for Holland without anyone noticing much says a lot about Holland's capabilities as a drummer, but I'm not inclined to be that harsh. Indeed, since we're talking an 80s-vintage drum machines here, the replacement isn't as smooth as it could be: there's a certain cold air to drum machines of this era which bleeds over into the music.

To their credit, Priest seem to recognise this and try to work with it, and the album is at its best when they do so. Blood Red Skies is a particular highlight, coming across almost as a heavy metal answer to the Sisters of Mercy. On other songs, like Love You To Death, it feels like they aren't accounting for the drum machine enough... or maybe Holland was just off his game.

Either way, there's no getting around the fact that Priest had a malfunctioning rhythm section when they produced this album, which meant that they were working with one hand tied behind their back. Considered from this perspective, it's surprisingly good - but on an objective level, it's a bit hit-and-miss, though even the "misses" here pull out something interesting sooner or later (Love You To Death picks up a bit when it speeds up towards the end, for instance). The Johnny B. Goode cover even kind of works in context!