| Concert Tour Name: | Mercenaries of Metal Tour |
| Artist: | Judas Priest |
| Album: | Ram It Down |
| Start Date: | 7 May 1988 |
| End Date: | 23 October 1988 |
| Number Of Shows: | 105 |
| Last Tour: | Fuel for Life Tour (1986) |
| This Tour: | Mercenaries of Metal Tour (1988) |
| Next Tour: | Painkiller Tour (1990–1991) |
The Mercenaries of Metal Tour was a 1988 concert tour by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, in support of their most recent release, Ram It Down. Unlike their other tours of the 1980s, no official Judas Priest release includes any live recordings from this tour. It was the final tour the band did with longtime drummer Dave Holland. The week before the tour started, the band visited Stockholm, Sweden for full production rehearsals at Hovet. Before the official tour start, the band played a few warm-up shows including one in a club in Amsterdam, Netherlands in early April 1988, where the footage for the Johnny B. Goode video was shot. On 24 September 1988, just before the band was about to perform a show in Dallas, Texas, they were greeted backstage by the sheriff with a subpoena, leading to the infamous subliminal message trial in the summer of 1990.
The average setlist for the tour is as follows,[1] "Turbo Lover" at several shows in North America,[3] and "Beyond the Realms of Death" at various shows.[4] [5] The setlist also saw the return of "Sinner", which had been a live staple since 1977, but had been dropped like all other pre-Killing Machine songs, except for "Victim of Changes", during the Fuel for Life Tour.[6]
The venues and events for the tour were located in Europe and North America.[7] [8] They were supported by Bonfire on the European and British legs, Cinderella on the British and North American legs and Slayer on the North American leg.