Length 45:39 Producer Chris Tsangarides Genre Heavy metal | Artist Slave Raider Label Jive Records | |
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Released November 1988 (1988-11) Recorded Summer 1988, Battery Studios, London What Do You Know About Rock 'N Roll?
(1988) Bigger, Badder, & Bolder
(1990) | ||
What Do You Know About Rock 'N Roll? is the sophomore studio album by Minneapolis shock rock band Slave Raider, released in the winter of 1988. It was the band's first album to be recorded for a major label (their debut having already been recorded, just remixed), and despite snowballing success from a notoriously successful show at London's Marquee club, the album had little success outside of the bands dedicated fan base.
Contents
Overview
After an extensive tour of London the group joined Tsangarides to record their sophomore effort. The second side is a loose rock opera about a totalitarian society in which rock and roll has been banned, and "The High Priest of Good Times" is persecuted for playing it, and sent to a prison known as the "Iron Bar Motel". Partially because of the lack of promotion by their record label the album was unsuccessful and led to the departure of original members Nicci Wikkid and Letitia Rae, and the band was dropped, coming together one more time with bassist Tommy D & only one guitar player for their independently released third album Bigger, Badder, & Bolder. Chainsaw Caine at the time viewed the album as a progression from their debut regarding technical proficiency and songwriting. Metal Forces magazine and Kerrang! writers shared this point of view, giving positive reviews of the album and the groups stage antics, particularly their British show at the Marquee. The rock opera of a rocker being suppressed by a totalitarian government was partially written about the PMRC, even though Caine stated in an interview with Kerrang! that he did not see the PMRC having any staying power.
Reception
Kerrang! was very positive of the album, as was another reviewer from Metal Force, but an allmusic retrospective review gave the album very negative reception. According to Metal Force, reviews for the album were very mixed depending on if the reviewer was willing to look past the band's image.
2015 remastered edition
In 2015, Divebomb Records re-mastered the first two Slave Raider albums because of their scarce availability on the CD format. The reissue includes extensive liner notes with lyrics, a short biography, and informational clips relevant to the time era of the band. Like most re-masters, it is excessively compressed and has significantly less dynamic range than the original RCA distributed disc.
Slave Raider
Additional musicians
Production
Songs
1Is There Rock 'N Roll In Heaven?3:50
2Youngblood4:29
3Bye Bye Baby4:08