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Miles Beyond is a power metal band hailing from Flint, Michigan, here in the USA. The band plays a classic style of heavy metal, with the focus being on dual guitar and vocal harmonies. Their bio sites a lot of hall of fame bands as influences (Maiden, Priest, Sabbath) and listening to them I can definitely hear a little bit of all these bands contributing to their music. With that in mind, its pretty obvious the band is not going for the ultra modern sound here. This material is what I would call “throwback”, and that, depending on where you are coming from, can be a positive or negative. For me personally, this is the type of metal I grew up listening to, so in that sense it’s somewhat refreshing to hear a band like this. At the same time, the band really needs to be sharp to distinguish themselves from all the repetitive power metal that is out there, and I think that on this album Miles Beyond show that they have the potential to do so.
With 12 songs and approximately 70 minutes of music, this debut is certainly ambitious. The album flows along pretty smoothly with most of the songs coming in at a mid-tempo pace. Tim Moody, who sounds like a young Bruce Dickinson, handles the vocal duties nicely. Moody also proves he is quite the talent, as he forms half of the partnership of the dynamite guitar duo with Paul Owsinki. The most prominent feature of this band is the duel playing of this terrific tandem. While I found several tracks on the record to blow others out of the water, even on some of the weaker tracks the harmonies contained within make this quite an overall enjoyable listen. Killer cuts like “Out of Control”, “Vlad the Impaler”, and “A Call to Odin” should satisfy any fan of traditional metal whether it be with catchy hooks or soaring vocals. The band also seems to posses that “metal warrior” swagger that carries on throughout their music (the song titles should also be an indicator of this). All in all, anyone who grew up worshipping bands like Maiden or Priest will most certainly be left with a feeling of nostalgia. Factor in some quality production and what you have is a pretty damn good debut album from a band I look forward to hearing more of in the future.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Out Of Control |
| 2. Tales Of Old |
| 3. Miles Beyond |
| 4. Take Me Back Home |
| 5. Vlad The Impaler |
| 6. Still Strong |
| 7. The Spaniard |
| 8. Hail To The King |
| 9. Rock Revolution |
| 10. Stowaway |
| 11. Crazy Horse |
| 12. A Call To Odin |
: 69.12
| Buy other Miles Beyond albums |
