More keyboard drenched hard rock on this second and final album from Giuffria, now remastered by Metal Mind Productions. By 1986, the band had lost Chuck Wright & Craig Goldy (who left to Quiet Riot and Dio), but welcomed into the band guitarist Lanny Cordola and bassist David Sikes. Silk and Steel saw the reformed band return with basically the same formula as on their self titled debut, which was a catchy brand of melodic hard rock.
This time around, the results were not as successful as on the debut. Silk and Steel peaked at # 80 on the Billboard charts, which was probably due to the lack of a hit single or video ("Call to the Heart" was the semi-smash from the debut), though the songs "I Must Be Dreaming" and "Love You Forever" were released to FM rock radio. Despite the lack of breakout tracks here, there are a few winners, such as the grandiose symphonic hard rock of "No Escape", the Journey influenced "Change of Heart", the heavy rocker "Radio", and the raunchy "Dirty Secrets".
Though there's some good material here, the sound of the band is not as polished as on their debut, and they drift into too many generic rockers and sappy ballads, which ultimately brings Silk and Steel down a hair. Still, if it's classy AOR that you crave, this and the debut from Giuffria are very good choices to check out. Metal Mind's remaster sounds just fine, and the digipack recreates the original LP quite nicely.
Track Listing
1) No Escape
2) Love You Forever
3) I Must Be Dreaming
4) Girl
5) Change of Heart
6) Radio
7) Heartache
8) Lethal Lover
9) Tell It Like it Is
10) Dirty Secrets
11) Say It Ain't True-bonus track
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