Judas Priest's Reviews
Ram It Down (Average Rating: 6.26 out of 10)
PRIEST RAM IT HOME!!! REMASTERED! (Rated this album with 10 out of 10)
Reviewed by
cd-heaven
from Poontang Heaven
WOW! Let me first start off by saying that each Judas Priest studio effort is a distinguishable classic. The Judas Priest Remaster series is both good and bad. Good because each studio release sounds sonically superior to the old versions. All of them sound clean, crisp sounding from Sin After Sin through Painkiller. Also good on some of the reissues are the studio bonus tracks. I will review each bonus track as I review each reissue, some are better than others. The bad part about the studio ablum remasters series is the live bonus tracks (do not be confused, the live bonus tracks on both live reissues are great, and I include those bonus tracks in the reviews). ALL the live bonus tracks are lousy. The sound quality is good, just the performances are uninspried, and lame. From Sin After Sin's Jawbreaker (Halford sounds weak here) to Painkiller's Leather Rebel (which is made worse because it's rpobably the weakest song on Painkiller). If you are a fan who has all the studio albums already and are looking to wet your ears with the live tracks, forget about it, they will let you down. Seriously, the songs off of the Halford-less 98 Live Meltdown are more inspirational than these live bonus songs. Well that sums up the Remaster Series as a whole,
now on with the individual review...This album is an UNDER-RATED Priest Jem. Sure, it's no British
Steel, or Killing Machine, but come on, it's 10 years later, and
they still can scream of Vengenence and riff like Metal Gods.
Proof is the leadoff track, Ram It Down. Their heaviest album opener since Screaming For Vengence in 1982. This song just cooks and it's kind of gets the tempo set for Painkiller in 2 years. Other great tracks are Heavy Metal, Hard as Iron, and a ripping cover of Johnny B. Goode. My 2 favorite tracks though are Blood Red Skies (Pure classic Priest) and Monsters of Rock, what a great way to close an album along with the opener title
track. All-in-all, a GREAT album, ever though the drums do sound a bit mechanical. It really isn't that bad. The remastering is
superb, both in sound improvement and album packaging (lyrics and photos). As for the 2 bonus tracks, Live Bloodstone and Night Comes Down, really not necessary to have been included.
But the album is definitely worth getting.
Buy this album on Amazon at $10.99
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