Best Tune off of "Ram It Down" by JP (Judas Priest)

Released- May 7th, 1988
Recorded- December 1987–March 1988
Studio- Ibiza Sound Studio, Ibiza, Spain,
Puk Recording Studios, Copenhagen, Denmark
Produced by Tom Allom, Glen Tipton, Rob Halford, and KK Downing.
Personnel- Rob Halford – vocals,K. K. Downing – guitar,Glenn Tipton – guitar,Ian Hill – bass guitar, and Dave Holland – drums.

The Tunes...

Ram It Down
Heavy Metal
Love Zone
Come And Get It
Hard As Iron
Blood Red Skies
I'm A Rocker
Johnny B Goode
Love You To Death
Monsters Of Rock


I considered doing "Priest Live", checked out the song list and said forget it. Then for some reason I decided to give it a listen. Glad I chose to leave it alone.

This is another album that I have never listened to all the way through.
I recall the drum machines when it was released and when gleaning my info for the input on this thread, it was discovered that Mr Holland had some health issues during recording.  

Blood Red Skies for me, beautiful song.

Johnny B Goode. They took a classic tune and really made it their own. A real cracker of a tune.


Just kidding. That song sucks donkey! 'Blood Red Skies' is epic.

Blood Red Skies for me. I actually think the rest of the album isn't bad (except for Johnny B Goode).

"Blood Red Skies" is the "Out In The Cold" of Ram It Down. It even has the same placement on the album.

This was the first JP album I bought when it first came out. I was so excited. The commercial for it said "Take it out, put it on, Ram It Down!" or something like that, and a fist would slam down the vinyl record on the phonograph. There were a lot of JP articles in the metal mags with the band sporting their new perms. It was really well-promoted.

I played the cassette on a boombox in my parents' backyard while sunbathing. It was one of the few cassettes I had, so it got a lot of plays. I tolerated it, but was mainly disappointed. I listened to it on Spotify last night after not hearing it in a long time, and it was a little better than I was expecting, but some songs were still awful. "Heavy Metal, what do you want"...Ugh! "Hard As Iron"...Ugh! That bridge in the title track sounds like it could be the theme song to some cheesy '80s sitcom. "Blood Red skies" still holds up, though.

I'm a Rocker.

The drums sound awful on this album. Must have been a drum machine.

"Blood Red Skies" is my favorite. My dark horse pick is "Hard As Iron."

I wanted to Ram It Down the garbage disposal.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Johnny B Goode. They took a classic tune and really made it their own. A real cracker of a tune.


Just kidding. That song sucks donkey!

Poor donkey!!!

'nother vote for "Blood Red Skies" here.

Vintage footage !
This song reminds me of Halford - like Dr. Jeckyl -
in the lab - mixing all the ingrediants -
and his singing and lyrics - sound like Frankenstien -

" When the power chords come crashing down -
they go tearing through my sense -
it's for the strong NOT for the weak -
Bring Light in Dark Demensions !
It stimulates regenerates -
it's theraputic healing "

Halford wrote some great lyrics on this one !

Blood Red Skies has always been one of my favorite Priest tracks, so it gets my vote.

The cheese is tolerable on this album for the most part. My second pick probably would've been Love Zone, it's pretty catchy and not the most cringe-worthy song of the bunch.

The title track

This old wizard NAILS it !

I decided to vote for Hard as Iron, though the title track and Blood Red Skies are close seconds.

I like about half this album. The title track has my vote, but I also like Blood Red Skies, Hard As Iron, Heavy Metal and I'm A Rocker.

S.D. wrote:

I wanted to Ram It Down the garbage disposal.  

For my part I'm not sure that I've ever heard this record! I own this record as I bought it as a bundle with Screaming & Turdo just to complete my '70s & '80s Priest collection but at the time this came out I could not have cared less about Priest. Never in the history of music has there been a more cliche collection of song titles!

DallasBlack wrote:

The title track

That's another awesome song.

Heavy Metal

I voted for "Blood Red Skies" b/c I had to pick one song. I absolutely love this album. Always have and always will. I remember walking, my best bud and me, walking in the heat that Summer to pick this up at the local record store. I remember going back to his house and just cranking this cassette as we read our Hit Paraders and Metal Edge mags. Ahhh, the good old days.

Props to James B. for keeping the Priest polls going.

Blood Red Skies is my favorite.

ram it down. but the entire album smokes imo.

Cute Giesha gal nails it !

What a hard listen. I did better programming when working at Pakaderm Studios back in the day.
I am going with "Blood Red Skies". It does have elements that are hokey as hell, but also is the best written tune on the album. (IMHDO)