Sixty Miles Down

The Starland Ballroom seems to be THE place for great metal shows in New Jersey. Friday night saw another great metal lineup and another packed house. We had the opportunity to obtain a photo pass, thanks to Michele from WCP Management, as the opening band, Sixty Miles Down is one of the bands she works with. They kicked off the night and received a great response from the crowd. Their sound is very reminiscent of Alice in Chains/Godsmack. These guys are all very talented musicians and have a great stage presence. They really seemed to enjoy themselves playing to an enthusiastic crowd. While their set was fairly short, they played enough material to really get a feel for their sound. If you’ve never seen these guys before, be sure to check them out!
- Metal Fury www.metalfury.com

New Jersey metal clan Sixty Miles Down are big on dark, heavy hooks a la Alice in Chains, Il Nino, and 40 Below Summer. On the quintet’s 12-track disc, it’s hard not to stumble upon thick, rollicking guitars like the ones found on “Dead Weight”, “Resolution”, and “Broken Down”, but there’s a lot more to SINK OR SWIM than one mood. In fact, the ominous piano performance on “Raise the Dead” gives the track an eerie glow, while the contagious melody of “What You Never Had” sounds as if the band could be featured on mainstream radio. Overall versatile, (but at its best when the tone is considerably bleak), Sixty Miles Down combine the wares of Down, COC, Staind, and Godsmack with all of the melodic crunch you crave. www.60md.com
-Mike SOS - Crusher Magazine

I got to see a great show down at The Underpass in Elmwood Park, NJ a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, Joe Beets and Kenny weren’t there that night, but what a night it was! Who really impressed me that night was the band that opened up for Smoke Star and Blow Up Daisy. They called themselves Sixty Miles Down and they rocked hard! They sounded like they had their shit together! Their songs had great old school metal sounding guitar riffs with incredible Godsmack-type harmonies. It’s definitely something I would pop into my CD player and listen to for a while. I mean, it’s still in there now! Sixty Mile Down or 60 MD is a heavy, yet melodic band out of Northern New Jersey with influences that range from Black Sabbath and Alice In Chains to Pink Floyd and U2. After three years of trying to develop Sixty Miles Down, singer and founder John Mosco thinks that he might finally have it right—the right line-up and the right style of music. He seems more confident with his new product. The current line-up of Sixty Miles Down is John Mosco (lead vocals), Eric Bergmann (bass), Mauricio Kowalczuk (drums), Dave Chisholm (guitars), and Roger Manzo (guitars). Sixty Miles Down are currently playing out to promote the release of their full-length CD, Sink Or Swim. A couple of songs that you might want to pay attention to are “Temper Takes Control,” which starts off with some double bass action on the drums, and I love the riff in “Dead Weight.” This song kind of reminded me of the stuff that John Kosco and the boys from Drop Box are doing. The very mellow “Underwater” is an excellent track also! Very Godsmack sounding, but it really showcases John’s powerful vocals. Order a CD or simply find out where Sixty Miles Down are playing next on their website www.60md.com - The Aquarian Weekly - North Jersey Notes by Tim Louie

With the radio clogged by a glut of bands who are no more than clones of the latest mallcore trends (Switchfoot, Audioslave, A perfect Circle, to name but a few), it's no wonder that any new "modern rock" group is usually met with skepticism, and often more than a little bit of disdain, by serious fans of heavy music. The emo/agro/nu-metal muppets so often hailed as "kick ass" by the baggy-pants generation are so devoid of artistic creativity that it's difficult to tell where one band ends and another begins. Can anyone tell me what musical innovation seperates Slipknot from Static-x, or Clutch from Spineshank? Sure, their clown makeup differs slightly, but is that what we want from a band? If I havn't yet made clear to you how I feel about what the major labels feed us as rock these days, then let me turn my little red baseball cap around and spell it out for you...
Nah, you're metal fans so you get the point (and in all liklihood share it as well). What does my rant have to do with Sixty Miles Down's debut album Sink Or Swim? Well, Sixty Miles Down is what most would consider a "modern hard rock " band that has a sound I could see as radio friendly, but they're also a band in possession of musical talent and songwriting ability that sets them apart from the sonic goobers mentioned above. Plenty of bottom-tuned guitars and distortion, tons of bass groove, and a vocalist who sounds like a less depressed Layne Staley - That's Sixty Miles Down in a musical nutshell. What separates them is the variation of their songwriting as they ease from crushing riffs to power ballads to semi-industrial grooves. Frontman and band founder John Mosco captures the bleakness that hallmarked Alice in Chains and refines it with excellent range and sincere emotion. Sink or Swim was recorded at a time when their drummer was splitting duties with another band and unable to participate in the recording process, so besides being the voice of Sixty Miles Down John also sat behind the kit.
A far majority of the songs on the 12-track debut are strong enough to stand on their own, with some slight naunce or distinction keeping the album from falling into a rut. Of the many standout tracks, the first to catch my attention was the semi-ballad "What You Never Had". This song has the most potential to be a radio hit because of it's Semisonic-like accessibility. Far from the heaviest on the album (aside from a couple of crunchy riffs), it still serves as an indication of the bands ability to switch gears and compose quality songs at more than one level. Getting back to what we're most interested in (that being the heaviness of Sink Or Swim), "Say Goodbye" is very reminiscent of early Filter for it's electronic/industrial makeup. The title track, as well as "Resolution" and "Temper Takes Control", shows a clear Godsmack influence in both vocal styles and heavy riffs. "Raise the Dead" is the first of two ballads on the album (the other being "Waiting For You" with it's expressive guitar opener). Again, a powerful performance from Mosco and some fine guitar lines keeps the listener involved and away from the "skip" button. Wrapping up the album is "Darkness Falls", with dual-guitar harmonies and some of the heaviest riffs on the disc. A short interlude with female backing vocals is a nice touch as well.
Several members of Sixty Miles Down were splitting time in another New Jersey band called Anger of the Lamb, resulting in tensions which ultimately forced John to disband the group shortly after releasing Sink Or Swim. Striving to keep alive the band he founded, John recruited a new guitarist (Dave Chisholm) and a new bass player (Eric Bergmann) in early 2003 and set to work writing material for a follow-up to the debut. Should the rebuilt Sixty Miles Down be able to match or exceed the quality of Sink Or Swim, big things are sure to be on the horizon for these guys. - Harvest Moon Music