{"id":49535,"date":"2015-05-29T22:21:40","date_gmt":"2015-05-30T03:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=49535"},"modified":"2015-05-29T22:21:40","modified_gmt":"2015-05-30T03:21:40","slug":"slave-raider-what-do-you-know-about-rock-n-roll-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2015\/slave-raider-what-do-you-know-about-rock-n-roll-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Slave Raider | What Do You Know About Rock \u2018n Roll?<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SlaveOriginally released in 1988, What Do You Know About Rock \u2018n Roll?<\/em> was the second album from Minneapolis-based glam metal band Slave Raider. The term \u201ccult classic\u201d gets tossed around pretty freely, but in Slave Raider\u2019s case it is completely appropriate. Here\u2019s a band that had a wild look, an even wilder sound, and that went beyond the normal party rock clich\u00e9s, yet outside of the Twin Cities area, they just didn\u2019t make a huge impact.<\/p>\n

Slave Raider\u2019s look and attitude owed a lot to bands like Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P. and Lizzy Borden, and their sound took a lot of those same cues as well. They took the basic Melodic Hard Rock formula and gave it a Metal edge and a flamboyant sense of style. The catchy hooks and Chainsaw Caine\u2019s raspy vocals are what stand out the most initially, but the metallic rhythms are what get heads banging.<\/p>\n

With What Do You Know About Rock \u2018n Roll?<\/em>, Slave Raider got a bit more ambitious than on their first outing (Take the World By Storm<\/em>). The band brought in famed producer Chris Tsangaredes, who helped them add a more melodic polish to their sound. You hear that especially in the opening tracks \u201cIs There Rock \u2018n Roll In Heaven?\u201d and \u201cYoungblood,\u201d the latter of which got some decent radio play in the Minneapolis area. They also made the second half of the album a mini rock opera about a dystopian future where rock music is a crime. That could have been embarrassingly bad, but it actually works pretty well here. It\u2019s not overblown and melodramatic; it just has some cool themes that hold the songs together and culminate in one of the best versions of Thin Lizzy\u2019s \u201cJailbreak\u201d you\u2019ll ever hear.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Slave Raider never got the label support they needed, and didn\u2019t make a huge impact on the national scene. They survived a major lineup change long enough to release a follow-up (1990\u2019s Bigger, Badder & Bolder<\/em>), but folded soon afterward. They may not have (ahem) taken the world by storm, but Slave Raider was one of the era\u2019s most interesting and entertaining Hard Rock\/Glam Metal acts. If you like your \u201880s rock hard, catchy and over the top, this is a band you really need to discover, especially now that their early albums are once again in print.<\/p>\n

Edition Notes: The Slave Raider catalog has been out of print for ages, and the original pressings have been selling quite high on the secondary market. Thanks to the reissue specialists at Divebomb Records though, fans can get their hands on a superior version of What Do You Know About Rock n\u2019 Roll?<\/em> without paying a collector\u2019s price. Divebomb\u2019s deluxe reissue features the original album with brilliant new digital remastering, and a booklet that\u2019s loaded with a band bio, lyrics, and vintage photos, interviews and press material. There are no bonus tracks, but just having this album back in print and sounding this great more than makes up for that. It\u2019s limited to 1000 copies, and isn\u2019t available digitally, so don\u2019t wait too long to pick one up.<\/p>\n

Genre: Hard Rock, Glam Metal<\/p>\n

Lineup:
\nChainsaw Caine (v)
\nLetitia Rae (b) (v)
\nNicci Wikkid (g) (v)
\nLance Sabin (g) (v)
\nThe Rock (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tIs There Rock \u2018n Roll In Heaven?
\n2.\tYoungblood
\n3.\tBye Bye Baby
\n4.\tKeep On Pushin\u2019
\n5.\tSin City Social
\n6.\tRoller Coaster
\n7.\tThe High Priest of Good Times
\n8.\tThe Magistrate
\n9.\tWhat Do You Know About Rock \u2018n Roll?
\n10.\tGuilty
\n11.\tIron Bar Hotel
\n12.\tWreckin Machine
\n13.\tJailbreak<\/p>\n

Label: Divebomb Records<\/p>\n

Website: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Slave-Raider\/258950810798297?fref=ts<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven Rating: 8.75\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — Originally released in 1988, What Do You Know About Rock \u2018n Roll? was the second album from Minneapolis-based glam metal band Slave Raider. The term \u201ccult classic\u201d […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":49536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12394],"tags":[2317,923,1094,1103,11267,11268],"class_list":{"0":"post-49535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2015","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-divebomb-records","10":"tag-glam-metal","11":"tag-hard-rock","12":"tag-slave-raider","13":"tag-what-do-you-know-about-rock-n-roll"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}