Dave Holland

Nightfly wrote: Don't know if Holland owned the studio but according to Rob Halford's recent autobiography he was pretty depressed about having his drum parts taken by a drum machine which ultimately led to him quitting the band. I think he may have still played on some of the album. I haven't played it for a while but I'll give it a listen and see if there's any noticeable difference in the drum sound between tracks. I remember the title track definitely being a drum machine.

I think ”Hard as Iron” must be a drum machine too. That song sounds like Judas Priest meets Nitzer Ebb and something that could be played in a club, if they did a remix. The drums sound way too artificial to suit a heavy metal song imo.
Also, ”Blood Red Skies” is 100% drum machine according to KK Downing’s autobiography.

Edited by hellorhighwater - 11 Mar 2021 at 5:12am

Hi!
Do anyone know if Dave Holland owned Estudios Mediterráneo (former Ibiza Sound Studios) at the time it was burnt to the ground in 1990? Holland bought the studio in 1983 when Judas Priest was about to record Defenders of the Faith. According to the Judas Prist Info Pages the fire was suspected as a insurance fraud.

KK Downing, and maybe also Glenn Tipton, felt restrained by Holland’s drumming when they wanted to experiment with the Priest sound and speed things up, especially during live shows. Therefore they decided to use a drum machine during the recording of Ram It Down. I don’t know if Holland played at all on the album, altough being credited. Maybe he layed down the drum patterns for the drum machine? Though I think Downing or Tipton did that.
Holland reportedly didn’t show any signs or being bothered by the drum machine. But at the end of the Mercenaries of Metal Tour in 1988, Holland started acting out against Glenn Tipton whom he saw as responsible for replacing Holland with a drum machine. After one of these rants against Tipton, he added; ”and by the way, I’m quitting the band”, which he would do as soon as the tour was over.