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- CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE
WEEK
- Judas Priest "Ram It Down" 1988 (UK)
It's
nearly Halloween, which means I like to do a heavy metal themed show,
and Judas Priest so far wins the prize this year for being the classic
artist of yesteryear who put out a surprisingly vital new album: Firepower (2018) is Priest's 18th album in 45 years, and it's certainly their best album since Painkiller
(1990) at least, rivaling the best albums from their period of peak
popularity in the 1980's. So this week's CAOTW is an overlooked
record from 30 years ago (the first third of their very long career!) Ram
is not considered a classic by too many folks, receiving "two stars"
from Allmusic.com, and wikipedia notes the album received "negative
reviews" upon release. But I find it to be a solid batch of their
80's-style metal anthems with production that is overly slick and "very
eighties" in a way that makes it a cool period piece rather than a
dated bore. For example the song called "Heavy Metal" begins with an
over-the-top guitar solo before a riff kicks in . . . on the
synthesizer?! They also do a strangely dramatic rearrangement of
Chuck Berry's classic three-chord rocker "Johnny B. Goode" (which I
played on the show last month). The story behind this album is that
they had originally intended a double album of half synth-driven pop
metal, which eventually became the album Turbo (1986), with the other half being heavier songs which eventually became Ram It Down. Though both of those albums are the synthiest and most eighties-ish of their career, Ram is not nearly as wimpy as Turbo (which was a better seller). In fact, coming after that album and Defenders Of The Faith (1984) which is another overly slick record I'm not fond of, Ram seems to me to be a return to form that points directly towards the thrash-inspired Painkiller
that followed and rejuvinated their stalling career somewhat
(though they stalled again soon after when legendary vocalist Rob
Halford quit the band, though he returned in 2005). Fun fact:
since guitarist Glenn Tipton is semi-retired due to age affecting his
playing, that means bassist Ian Hill is arguably the only constant
member of the group since the beginning! He must be the most anonymous
musician who's ever been in a major band for almost a half century! (I
have long suspected Hill was an inspiration for the character Derek Smalls).
In other news, this week I got to see Public Image Ltd. on their "The Public Image is Rotten" 40th anniversary tour! I've never had a chance to see The Artist Formerly Known As Rotten
before, and I must say his "unique" voice sounds as strong as ever, and
his current group is one of PIL's best lineups (it's actually 3/4 the
same guys as the late 1980's version of the band, tying things back to
the CAOTW -- though the records they were making back then aren't as
good as the last one they did). This
current version of PIL has been playing together since 2009 and is a vital
contemporary band, even if most of them are sporting grey hair and
bifocals these days!
But wait there's more - that Haru Nemuri
chick I keep going on about has released a couple more
singles in the last month and is starting to get more attention,
including this article in English with interview
(I suspected "Haru Nemuri", which translates as "sleeping springtime",
was not her real name -- indeed, the gal's name is actually Haruna
Kimishima).
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