I. The Band

Oh my GOD how time flies! It feels just like yesterday when these five rock’n roll rebels to be known as THE MILESTONES took their native home town Helsinki by force with their timeless and soulful rock’n roll, as they entered the legendary stage of the longest serving rock club in Europe, Tavastia Club on one cold Friday evening in January 1995.

I wasn’t the only one who was impressed. Enter Mr. Hannu Leiden – the vocalist and songwriter of HAVANA BLACK – who had been on the verge of a major breakthrough in USA late eighties, as legendary manager Alan Niven had taken Hannu’s band under his wing together with GUNS N’ROSES and GREAT WHITE.

Not one band had impressed Hannu in USA as much as these five Finnish whiskey rock’n rollers from the capital, so there and then he decided to form a record label to release an album by THE MILESTONES.

Vol. 1 saw the light of day in 1996 and boasted an opening track called “Ragged Lies”, which would have made the likes of THE BLACK CROWES, AC/DC and LYNYRD SKYNYRD proud, if they had written it themselves!

In this case it was five unknown, but hugely talented Finnish rockers in their twenties rocking hard and kicking ass as they were trying to keep themselves warm living next to the arctic circle and Russia – when not drinking vodka, whiskey and rum straight from the bottle. Damn straight they were not damned and straight!

However, their hot rockin’ didn’t go unnoticed across the Atlantic and New York, as one room at the offices of Sony Music in New York blasted world class hard rock from Finland in ear-shattering volumes all day and night. Others in the office were dumbfounded: who are these guys? From Finland? You’re kidding me!?!

So came the invitation: would you like to record an album in New York? Now it was THE MILESTONES’ turn to be dumbfounded. To record in USA? You’re kidding! It was do or die, now or never for the band – so off they went. Well, as these things often go, pressure to record and provide something commercially viable resulted in a watered-down end result known as ”Souvenirs” in 1999.

Ultimately it would take ten years for THE MILESTONES to heal the wounds.

Fortunately they did.

When British CLASSIC ROCK MAGAZINE presented ”southern rock uprising” on their cover-mount cd next to southern rock giants such as BLACK OAK ARKANSAS, BLACKFOOT, MOLLY HATCHET and DOWN in summer of 2008, guess who they made out to open that record? Yep, you got that right! Well, THE MILESTONES of course, with their notorious rock’n roll anthem ”Ragged Lies”.

– Like a less bleary-eyed THE BLACK CROWES, they’re soulful and groovy, and their songs make walking barefoot all summer seem like a really good idea, as CLASSIC ROCK put it when presenting these five gentlemen.

Devil In Me, their first album in ten years was well-received around the globe and put the band on tour in Scandinavia, Central Europe and even USA supporting the likes of WHITESNAKE, DEEP PURPLE, BLACK STONE CHERRY, GARY MOORE, RAGING SLAB and D.A.D.

– You can hear the emotion, sweat and passionate joy in the musicianship and it doesn’t take long, before you want to run amok in your apartment. Hell yeah, as Mika Roth from Desibeli.Net so elegantly put it in his review of Devil In Me.

Now THE MILESTONES are back with their 4th album ”Higher Mountain – Closer Sun”, that should finally secure the band a headliner status and as a force to be reckoned within rock’n roll – some 20 years after the bands’ inception.

Yeah, it’s actually friggin’ true: in 2014 THE MILESTONES are celebrating 20 years together as a band, with a great new album under its belt and with their original line-up. Now that’s a remarkable feat!

”Higher Mountain – Closer Sun” is a monumental document of what one can make with sincerity, passion, friendship, endurance and love for rock’n roll. In the case of THE MILESTONES, it resulted once again in a classic rock’n roll masterpiece that should be celebrated and enjoyed all over the universe by fans of timeless rock music.

So grab a beer, pour yourself a whiskey, crank up the volume and let the good times roll together with THE MILESTONES and ”Higher Mountain – Closer Sun”.

Biography by Nalle Österman

Website: The Milestones

II. The Milestones is an Austrian band that represented Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest 1972 with the song "Falter im Wind". Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.