Giuffria - Silk + Steel

You would be hard pressed to find a disc that hits the spot like "Silk + Steel". This is the cream of the 80s crop. There are very few albums that can compete with this one for the genre that its in, and even way over a decade later, not very many AOR/hard arena rock style bands have managed to surpass the energy, emotion, and classic feel of this one. Simply put, the whole album is golden.

The loss of guitarist Craig Goldy didn't hurt the band one bit, there's still gobs of synthesizer pumping keyboards, probably a little sugary than what you expect, but this was the standard rather than the exception for the time. All courtesy of band leader Gregg Giuffria of course, who has lent his talents to such bands as Angel and White Sister prior to forming Giuffria and then House of Lords afterwards. Guitars are handled by the versatile Lanny Cordola, who does an admirable job, and fills the record with plenty of 80s style riffs and solos, pristine clean and blending it just perfect with the rest. He's made the rounds, doing everything from country to bluegrass, instrumental jazz, reggae, progressive rock/metal, pop and more. Metal fanatics would recognize him with his work from House of Lords debut, and Pat Torpey's solo album (Mr. Big's drummer), as well as him dabbling in Doro's self titled release. Its a shame he didn't stay with the metal stuff, because its easy to see he has a talent for weaving blistering guitar rhythms and high flying solos. The mighty AOR god David Glenn Eisley supplies vocals, and does a wonderful job of it too. His unique voice is like velvet against the backdrop layers of poppy synth.

Giuffria's music? Those that have heard their self titled release with Craig Goldy will know basically what to expect. For the most part, its soft and pretty, ballad-esque in the vien of Journey and Foriegner, but tightened up and given a healthy boost of metallic sounds, so expect more punch and bounce than their earlier release. These tweakings have punched it up a few notches to run alongside other 80s lightweights like Shy, White Sister, Keel and the positively divine Skagarack. There's lots of charm and beauty in this album, and I advise keeping a few kleenexs on hand, because before you get through the "Silk" section, you will definitely need it. That's right, the album has two different parts, the first is the already mentioned Silk, that showcases all the ballads right there in a row, and the second is titled Steel, which features the tightened up 'metal' tunes. It was an interesting concept, which had more meaning back in the days of records and cassettes when there were two sides to every story (as well as music media). There was only one problem with the idea, it seems that "Heartache" accidentally slipped over to the "Steel" side when it definitely belonged in "Silk", but I guess they decided it would give the album more balance placed where it is. That kind of defeated the purpose of sectioning the sides off into Silk & Steel but I digress. What made the album a classic, was not only the sound, but also the song writing. Its top notch and dead on for the audience they were aiming for.

Silk
Not quite pure as silk.... the opener is a bit too rocky to fit what one would imagine a silky song to be, but the rest are right at home. This section of course contains the ballads, and not a one of them is a clunker. Mining the golden legacy of pop rock 'metal' stuff like Orion the Hunter, Shy, Skagarack, Madison, and arena rockers including Journey and Foriegner, these songs will take you back to the days when synthesizer was big, and the hair even bigger.

1. No Escape - Pure arena rock and an attention getter, its a nice way to kick off the album, much like the s/t's lead-in track, "Do Me Right". It slows down in the rockin' middle to reveal some synth while Eisley repeats either "noo whoaa" or just a series of long suffering "ohhhhhhhwhoaaaa" before breaking into some searing electrical guitar prowess.
2. Love You Forever - Here we get into the toned down ballad mode. A lovey dovey cry to hang on to love that's slipping away, sounds as pure and beautiful as it did when it was first recorded, with layers of swirling guitar and keyboards. The words "Forever" and "love" are used multiple times, without crippling the song in the slightest. Eisley's vocals are positively gorgeous, showing incredible range and staying power.
3. I Must Be Dreaming - More aggressive upfront drums with guitar ringing out to enforce each pound gel the song together. Using plenty of electric goodness as filler, this tune rocks but with an ever present softer sound, that's lightened up a good bit with the use of keyboards.
4. Girl - Ahh now this is a pretty tune. Starting with the cooing "be my, be my baby", basically reveals the whole theme of the song right there. A broken love, holding on to the little pieces that are left and hopelessly fighting the memories of her walking away. Yes, its the same lyrical stuff that fueled "Love You Forever", but this one sadly doesn't have the same kind of hope hinted ending, and settles on a more bleak closure.
5. Change of Heart - The ole 'love turns into a lie' theme, this time concentrating on the aftermath of what happens after the relevation that the significant other has been caught in the midst of a lie. Its reflective and presented in an obscure third person perspective, which is a change from all the first person tunes on here.

Steel
With one obvious exception, this part rocks hard, drawing comparisons to bands of the past, like MSG (McAuley Schenker Group - who actually didnt release their first album until a year after "Silk + Steel" came out), Keel, Skagarack (again), Hurricane, Def Leppard, and even Ratt. "Dirty Secrets" and "Lethal Lover" are 100% AOR gems.

6. Radio - The 'he became a rock n roll star' song, cliched lyrical basis, but it doesn't detract from its fun party time nature. Flash backs to mid 80s Keel, bits of MSG and the hardest of Foriegner's stuff. The soaring chorus is cool is hell.
7. Heartache - Big, bold powerballad in the truest sense of the word. Silky smooth and flowing like wine, its a gorgeous low key song, that moves at a drifting, breezy pace, padded heavily with synthesizer all over the place.
8. Lethal Lover - Hard as steel...well not really but anyway. This one has some balls, and plays out like more like hard rock than the previous softie sweet tunes. The beginning features sounds that resemble phasers going off similiar to those from some sci fi movie (Star Trek). Taking advantage of a much harder sound with lots of guitar. Compared to the rest on the album, this tune absolutely smokes. Quickly whipped out vocals exchange for more drawn out carefully phrased lines, and an explosive chorus that chugs along like Dokken with bits of Def Leppard and Hurricane.
9. Tell It Like It Is - Upbeat and punchy, with the background singers coming into play strongly. Sweetly poured, dazzling guitar solo in the middle has flash and flair, while the vocals sound gorgeous. Reminds me of "Trouble Again" fused with "Do Me Right Tonight", both from Giuffria's debut, and polished up to perfection.
10. Dirty Secrets - This one says Y&T right from the start, big big, addictive, reach out and grab ya rhythm, with hints of Ratt's swaggering down and dirty feel. Even the guitar solo has been styled to sound cheap n' nasty. Background vocals play a large part here as they did on the previous track, which enriches the overall thing they have going here.

On to the bad things about the album. Mainly its the lyrics, which are quite sparse, admittedly, but atleast they are not senseless jibberish. Often the title of the particular song gets repeated over and over during chorus and bridges and can grate on the nerves after multiple listenings. David Glen Eisley's voice is also very unique, its rich and quite masculine, but if you don't like his tone then the entire album will be ruined for you, because its extremely vocal driven from start to finish. Along with the keyboards, he gives this album its timeless personality. Consistancy is the name of the game here, with every song shaped and formed, and not even a single filler track. Not even one, every song is worthy of being played over and over again, and that is unusual for any album, and is one of the reasons this particular release is held in such high regard. Chances are, fans of AOR will absolutely adore this album, from start til finish however. With such gorgeous ballads, and a handful of pure feel good rockin summertime party tunes, there's few albums in this subgenre that can even begin to be a rival against this one. I give it a big two thumbs up. If silky smooth lite metal and hard rock tunes are your thing, then this one is right up your alley. A classic album in its own right.

Rating - 9.2
by Alanna Evans
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