{"id":22790,"date":"2014-10-14T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T00:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=22790"},"modified":"2014-12-29T23:00:14","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T23:00:14","slug":"album-review-the-milestones-higher-mountain-closer-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-the-milestones-higher-mountain-closer-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"THE MILESTONES – Higher Mountain \u2013 Closer Sun (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE MILESTONES
Higher Mountain \u2013 Closer Sun<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nListenable (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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How about a slice of some good ol\u2019 fashioned rock \u2019n\u2019 roll? Okay then ladies and gentleman, I introduce Finland\u2019s The Milestones; a Helsinki-based act consisting of Olavi Tikka (vocals \/ harmonica), Tomi Julkunen (guitar), Marko Kiviluoma (guitar), Veli Palevaara (bass) and Tommi Manninen (drums).<\/p>\n

There are times in one\u2019s life when you just want to pour yourself an alcoholic drink, sit back and inhale some decent, stripped back, hip shaking rock, and The Milestones provide such a feast \u2013 serving up a cocktail of The Black Crowes, AC\/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot and just about every other born to boogie booze \u2019n\u2019 roll band. It\u2019s as infectious as a sexually transmitted disease and won\u2019t stop even after the bar is shut, but this is one party you just won\u2019t want to leave whatever the consequences.<\/p>\n

The Milestones have been around for a bit, recording their debut opus, Vol. 1<\/em>, in 1996 when the harsh reality was that the music world wasn\u2019t ready for another stripped back act of such energy \u2019n\u2019 soulful sleaze. Even so, The Milestones impressed a good many and fuelled by a few bottles of whiskey they flew to New York to record another outing (Souvenirs<\/em>) in 1999, although things didn\u2019t seem to go to plan and it would be ten years before the next album, 2009\u2019s Devil In Me<\/em>, would surface.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly been a while, but it\u2019s good to have the boys back with album number four, another swaggering belter of an opus that comes rushing out of the blocks with the hip \u2018Walking Trouble\u2019; a fiery, stompin\u2019 sleazeball of a rocker featuring a killer vocal drool hinting at AC\/DC\u2019s legendary Bon Scott and a bar-room crash, bang, wallop pumped by wheezy harmonica and rattling percussion. Hey, it\u2019s the most basic ingredients for a rock \u2019n\u2019 roll good time; nothin\u2019 fancy, just no frills, straight from the heart high octane ballsy rock but it\u2019s catchy as hell and impossible to put down.<\/p>\n

The harmonica makes itself known again with the plodding \u2018Shalalalovers\u2019 where Olavi Tikka\u2019s vocals rise with ease above the flickering flames of that guitar twang, hinting at classic sleaze metal and boogie down nodding. It\u2019s no surprise that these guys have appeared on stage with the likes of Whitesnake, Raging Slab, and D.A.D.; their sound evokes images of so many blues and boogie-based bands as that Southern influence litters the glorious strut of \u2018Drivin\u2019 Wheel\u2019 and the simmering \u2018Oh My Soul\u2019, which features a smoking guitar vibe.<\/p>\n

And the theme continues throughout and yet never once does the experience become formulaic. The Milestones somehow have a knack for churning out big, anthemic choruses (again, \u2018Oh My Soul\u2019), jabbing chunks of bluesy fire (\u2018Sweet Sounds\u2019) and subtle sways (\u2018Looking Back For Yesterday\u2019). Okay, so while I prefer the more drunken, staggering party rock of the Faces, The Milestones take elements of The Black Crowes but make it more organic, and less stadium rock, hinting at the great American rock bands of the 70s. While some may smirk in mocking fashion at such unoriginality, one needs to kick back, relax and take in a puff of Higher Mountain \u2013 Closer Sun<\/em> to truly appreciate the God given talent of these guys because they\u2019ve just restored my faith in a world where revival seems to be the key for so many; in this case The Milestones have come up trumps, sounding at once genuine and clearly confident enough to believe in good ol\u2019 rock \u2019n\u2019 roll.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE MILESTONESHigher Mountain \u2013 Closer Sun Listenable (2014)Rating: 8.5\/10 How about a slice of some good ol\u2019 fashioned rock \u2019n\u2019 roll? Okay then ladies and gentleman, I introduce Finland\u2019s The Milestones; a Helsinki-based act consisting of Olavi Tikka (vocals \/ harmonica), Tomi Julkunen (guitar), Marko Kiviluoma (guitar), Veli Palevaara (bass) and Tommi Manninen (drums). There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-the-milestones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22790"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22795,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22790\/revisions\/22795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}