The worst heavy metal album since Black Sabbath's "Never say die"
Written: Mar 11 '03
Product Rating:
Pros: Pretty Heavy, have some excellent tracks(Ram it Down, Hard as Iron, Blood red Skies)
Cons: Most of the album is made of forgettable, cheesy, awful fillers.
The Bottom Line: Finally, if you're the kind of person who buys an album and listen only to 2 or 3 songs, go for it. Otherwise avoid this album like pestilence.
roxie_tranny's Full Review: Ram It Down [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster] by Judas Pri...
Hi everyone,
I had heard a lot of things about Ram it down. Some said it was the worst album Judas Priest ever made and some said it was a great comeback after the commercial sounding Turbo album. Well, what I can say is that this album sounds awful.
Well, of course it's heavy as hell, but at the same time it's commercial too. It's like if the band had tried to mix Trash metal with Pop. Sometimes it works pretty well (Hard as Iron) but most of the time it fails miserably. Tracks like Love Zone and I'm a rocker feature very heavy riffing accompaniying a commercial and cheesy melody. Trying to please everyone you and out pleasing nobody. Well let's have a look at the album track by track.
RAM IT DOWN
This song is the best of the album. In fact, I consider it to be an essential classic. The riffing, if not to catchy, is heavy and effective. The melody is extremely catchy and the guitar solo is one of the best solo of Judas Priest career. The pre-chorus is wonderful and the chorus itself is great. The only dowpoints are the juvenile party lyrics and the predictable way in wich Rob repeats "ram it down, ram it down". A masterpiece 10/10
HEAVY METAL
The songs begins with a promising guitar intro... before fading into one of the worst song of the entire Judas Priest catalog. The melody really gets on my nerves, and Halford voice sounds very nasal and robotic. The riffing is awful, sounding mechanized and doubled by awful keyboards. The chorus is so bad, Rob keeps repeating "heavy metal, heavy metal what do you want" endlesly and pointlesly. By the name of God, Skip this track! Awful 2/10
LOVE ZONE
A very commercial-sounding track. The chorus sounds like if it was singed by Bon Jovi or some other cheesy pop metal act. Feature a blues-sounding main riff that doesn't do anything for me. Pretty bad 4/10
COME AND GET IT
This song sounds like an AC/DC song. Well it's not the first time that Judas Priest sounds like AC/DC (remember "You dont have to be old to be wise" and "Devil's child"?) but those tracks sounded excellent. "Come and get it" sounds quite good, but maybe a bit to commercial for my taste. Not a bad track 7/10
HARD AS IRON
An excellent trash metal songs with a rather weird but catchy chorus. A successful attempt at blending opposed styles, it works very well with me. This is the predecessor of "Leather Rebel" of the Painkiller album. Great, heavy riffing, thunderous drums, good melody, excellent song. 9/10
BLOOD RED SKIES
The last good track of the album, "blood red skies" features a pretty good melody and an impressive high pitched chorus. This is a great ballad and works very well. The only downpoint is the mechanized keyboards riff that spoils much of the fun. Very good 8/10
I'M A ROCKER
A pop-sounding song, cheesy as hell, with awful and stupid lyrics. One of the worst songs of the album, avoid it at all cost. pretty bad 4/10
JOHNY B. GOODE
I've never heard the original song (by Chuck Berry) but hearing Judas Priest's version doesn't make me want to go check it out anyway. It's a decent song but it just sounds too happy to my ears. I like my songs a bit sadder than this. Well after all it's not so bad, but not so good either. average 6/10
LOVE YOU TO DEATH
An average song featuring cool riffing but not so good melody. Once again the lyrics are terrible. Sound cool if you compare it with "Heavy Metal" or "I'm a rocker" but it's still not much. faceless but decent 6/10
MONSTER OF ROCK
An utra slow and boring song about some kind of killing monster. (Yeah, once again) The drums sounds like a drum machine, Rob is speaking more than singing, dull guitar work. It's not as awful as some other songs from this album but it's so boring you dont want to hear it twice. bad 5/10
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.