Milestone

Medicate the Night EP

Written by: BV on 30/03/2013 19:08:42

Milestone is a rockin’ quartet from Bridgend, South Wales that sounds like a hybrid of Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters - it doesn’t end here though, as this hybrid sound was only my initial impression of the band. When reading about Milestone, the first thing that comes to mind is, that this might be one of those bands that seem to keep up the good old ‘when the whiskey is flowing, the rock is rolling’ attitudes of up-beat rock n’ roll, and with their debut EP “Medicate the Night”, that is exactly the frame of mind you seem to be thrown right into.

Album opener “Dirty Knees” kicks things off with howling feedback from the guitars and an upbeat drum figure that heralds the coming of mighty riffing. As soon as the vocals kick in the track takes off and despite the fact that this isn’t one of the most exciting tracks on the EP, I can’t help but be drawn completely into a state of mind where my head should be banging and the booze should be flowing. This onslaught of party-friendly riffs continues with highlight of the album “Blame Me” that features a very QOTSA-sounding opening riff, only to be followed by an abundantly catchy verse, where the vocals in particular are captivating. The guitars on this track are delightfully fuzzy sounding, yet they retain the clarity the melody depends so heavily upon, whilst the unbelievably steady rhythm section just grooves playfully around. – The solo on this track is also exemplary of the whole party-friendliness of this EP, as it’s straight to the point, dynamic as hell and not too long to become a downer for the ADD-fueled party audience that doesn’t have the time for 5+ minute psych-out solos.

Despite my initial fears that a band with such clear influences would come off too anonymous, I must admit that I am really getting into this album and Milestone in particular. Yes, at some occasions I find the influences to be far too evident, but those are the times where I remind myself that this is, in fact, a debut album – which makes it quite understandable. While the riffing is heavy and the vocals are powerful without ever really sounding forced, I find that album closer “Bless Your Soul” is probably one of the best things Milestone could have done to this EP. In the end, it isn’t really that demanding to make an EP where all five songs are hard-hitting straight-riffing – the real job lies in squeezing in that one track that varies from the rest by being slightly more contemplative and slightly less hard-hitting than the others, and I must say that the guys in Milestone have mastered this task beyond my expectations.

“Medicate the Night” is a powerful sounding and delightfully varied five-track EP that I can almost exclusively say nice things about. However, I do hope that they, by the time of their next release, have managed to construct a slightly more ‘personal’ sounding release, where their influences might be less evident – until that time, I’ll probably be listening to this EP quite a few times more.

8

Download: Blame Me, Bless Your Soul, Dirty Knees
For The Fans Of: Lost Souls Carnival, Queens of the Stone Age, The Gentlemen Bastards
Listen: facebook.com

Release Date 13.05.2013
Imperial Music


Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.