The mid-to-late '80s can arguably be considered the "Golden Age" of melodic hard rock, with bands like Survivor, Loverboy, and Asia riding their teased hair and spandex to rock radio success. The Greek rockers of Raw Silk came together in 1989 in order to grab a bit of that success for themselves, releasing their titillatingly covered debut album Silk Under The Skin in 1990. The album exhibits everything you'd expect from the genre - saccharine keyboard melodies, crisp guitar leads, and sing-along choruses - but remains within those pre-defined boundaries, offering little except to those who can't get enough of this bygone era of rock.

Silk Under The Skin is one of those albums that is enjoyable to listen to, contains enough variation to keep each song interesting, but in the end is ultimately forgettable. The standout track is "Irene", with excellent keyboard and guitar interplay and plenty of '80s pop-rock elements. Frontman George Florakis has a good voice for this type of rock, rarely struggling to achieve the result he's after. The only song that finds Florakis putting forth a dismal performance is the horrible ballad "Heroes Don't Cry". I can only guess that the band was going for a "tough but sensitive" power ballad here, but the result is a heaping pile of failure. I could stand listening to the entire song only once, and even then just barely. Definitely a track that demands the use of your skip button. With "Irene" and "Heroes Don't Cry" bookending the quality of Silk Under The Skin, the remaining songs do a decent job of providing entertainment and, for aging Gen-Xers like me, a bit of nostalgia.

If you're a huge fan of the aforementioned bands, this album is for you. To date it's the only release from Raw Silk, but several of the original members have reunited so a new album is certainly plausible. If you can't stand '80s hard rock, move along; nothing to see here.