"Milestone" by Gideon View All Reviews

The album begins with their first single, "Gutter," which they released for free back in December. The song gives a good feeling for how the how the whole album sounds, because of the great mixture of heaviness and great melodic parts as well; it also showcases very well the emotion that runs deep throughout the album. Every song is emotional, which may stem from the fact that each song is a personal experience from the band members. "Bad Blood" follows that up with another fast-paced, but very similar sounding song, which deals with being abandoned by someone they were close to. "No Acceptance" I feel changed it up and has a little bit of a different sound than the first two songs. I love, love, love the lyrics to this song, especially when vocalist, Daniel McWhorter, screams out, "We will be the change! They will not stop us! They will not slow us down!" It is definitely a call to action and a lesson learned from experience.

"Overthrow," I feel, has one of the heaviest breakdowns on the album, and is clearly one of the most emotional as well. This song perfectly embodies the sound Gideon was trying to go for on the album, with a perfect mixture of heaviness and melodiousness. "Prodigal Son" is a good song, but it sure sounds like a lot of the same instrumentals as a lot of the other songs on this record. It is great hardcore music, but it just feels the same as what I have heard already on the album. The theme of the song is pretty obvious, as it is stemming from the story of the prodigal son in the Bible, but with their own personal flare to it.

"Mask" has the same exact guitar riffs as "Prodigal Son." They are almost identical in sound. Once again, I like the sound, but it would be nice to hear them do some different things as far as instrumentals go. I love the vocals on "Still Alive," which talks about brotherhood and staying together - standing together "shoulder to shoulder." "Still Alive" leads very nicely into the solely instrumental title track. I love the title track so much, just because I feel like it fits so nicely with the whole album, and its sound is unlike anything I have heard on a metal album before. It fits perfectly right where it is on the album, and it really makes you reflect on the lyrics that you have heard so far. I love instrumental tracks on metal albums, but this is by far my favorite of any I have ever heard.

"Maternity" picks right back up with the heaviness, with one of the heaviest and fastest tracks on the album. As far as clean vocals go on this album, "Maternity" has the best in that category. They do not feel forced, and yet they also sound wonderful - in fact I wish they utilized clean vocals more on this record. "Coward" and "Faceless" then close out the album very strongly. "Coward" is another very heavy song, with one of my favorite breakdowns on the whole album. It is also a very intense song, which is seen when he says, "You are nothing to me!" The song talks about a woman being abused by her drunk husband, and says she deserves so much more than that. "Faceless" deals with forgiveness; the song is climaxed when McWhorter says, "Just know, you are forgiven!"

Gideon have cemented themselves in my brain. Milestone was an album I had high hopes for, and they did a very good job of living up to those hopes. They definitely did not reinvent the wheel, but they made some great hardcore music that I will for sure be jamming out to for a very long time. If you want a really good hardcore album, then you are definitely going to want to check out Milestone. It shows great maturity by the band, and is impeccably well done for a sophomore album. Gideon definitely did not fall into the sophomore slump!

Favorite Song: Overthrow

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