SURVIVORS

Several rock bands have made major chart impact lately, though there's very little that's likely to be long remembered: *AC/DC The Razors Edge Last year's one really great hard-rock record, loud enough to splinter eardrums and utterly unapologetic about what aficionados will recognize as inspired-both as an assault on the basics and an affirmation of them. A

*The Traveling Wilburys The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 Their first album was not only a great gimmick but a promising exploration of easy-listening rock that never lacked bite. But without the late Roy Orbison's galvanizing vocal presence, Jeff Lynne's bombastic production becomes the center of the show. C+

*The Black Crowes Shake Your Money Maker The Black Crowes are to the early Rolling Stones what Christian Slater is to the young Jack Nicholson: a self- conscious imitation, but fine enough in its own right. Authentic bluesmen these Crowes will never be, but their sheer energy earns 'em the right to trash it up. B+

*Damn Yankees Damn Yankees Ted Nugent is in his third decade as a chart-maker, and Damn Yankees aren't much better or worse than the Amboy Dukes, his mid-' 60s garage rock band. So there's still a market for the third-rate after all these years. D-

*Warrant Cherry Pie Warrant (singer Jani Lane, below) wanted to be stars worse than any band since Kiss. That gave last year's debut a certain charge-and exhausted their ambition. Now they can record a few more discs of guitar- 'n' female-bashing, then break up and join a sexagenarian Ted Nugent in a soft- metal supergroup sometime after the turn of the century. C-