The stereotypical sound of heavy metal for me in the eighties, and that very stereotypical sound I also loathed in the eighties, belongs to no other than Brummie metal legends Judas Priest. The album outwork, the dual guitar format and Rob Halford's brilliantly operatic screaming is what would come to mind whenever I heard of the music that, at the time I despised just as much as a fundamentalist King James Only pastor would have. Nowadays, however, it is a different story; I think heavy metal rocks, and Judas Priest are epic. From the breakthrough British Steel to their 1990 masterpiece Painkiller, Judas Priest defined metal more so than Black Sabbath ever did. But like all epic trendsetting bands they did have their weak spots, such as 1988's Ram It Down. Granted, there are a couple of good songs on here, such as the powerful "Ram It Down" and the appreciable "Heavy Metal", but it is also marred by the likes of a cover version of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode", which might have sounded like a good novelty thing, but in practice has proven nothing but to prove that this cover attempt simply didn't work. The album is certainly not rubbish, and is listenable, but it is far from being a highlight of their career. Stick to the likes of "Ram it Down", "Heavy Metal" and perhaps "I'm a Rocker" and "Monster of Rock." B
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