By Scott McLennan

Super-talented band with sharp material, big label backing, hot-shot producer, top-shelf recording studio — what could go wrong? Plenty.

Tales of Never Letting Go has arrived like a postcard from another time.

It was 1997, to be exact, during thrilling era for rock ’n’ roll — especially in Massachusetts, where I was lucky to watch from a prime vantage point as a music columnist for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Nationally, bands were taking hardcore punk into new realms — broadly defined as “post-hardcore.” Locally, great talents were emerging, part of an ecosystem of places to play and hang out that sustained both bands and their fans.

Overcast, Bane, Converge, Cave In, and Cast Iron Hike were among the key players with ties to Central Mass. who made noise across the country and packed ’em in back home at all-ages spots in Worcester like The Space and Espresso Bar.

As great as so many of these bands were, most never managed to sustain long careers (and all praise to the rock gods for Converge’s continued success and Cave In’s return).

Miltown was one of the bands from that time and place that a lot of people figured were going to really cause a big stir.

The band included singer Jonah Jenkins, frontman of the cerebral metal band Only Living Witness, who is still considered one of heavy music’s finest vocalists. Miltown’s two guitarists, Brian McTernan and Matt Squire, had arrived from Maryland and the DC punk scene, where they were in the band Ashes. Once in Boston, McTernan established Salad Days recording studio and had a hand in the production of countless influential hardcore, punk, post-hardcore, and other heavy music albums. Bassist Jay Cannava and drummer Rob Dulaney helmed the rhythm section and remain connected to the Boston music scene in various capacities.

Miltown released a single and EP through Hydrahead Records (which was putting out some of the best heavy music of the time). The band caught the attention of major record companies, which at the time were trying to score big with whatever was poised to follow Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and other hitmakers rooted in indie rock.

Warner Bros. affiliate Giant Records signed Miltown to its roster. Giant set up the band to record at Long View Farm in North Brookfield, the storied studio where J. Geils Band, Bad Brains, and Quicksand crafted career-defining albums — and where the Rolling Stones rehearsed ahead of their 1981 tour.

Toby Wright, who produced hit albums for Alice in Chains, Sevendust, and others, was brought in to work with Miltown; the band recorded 13 songs between December 1997 and January 1998.

Before the album could be mixed and released, Miltown disbanded.

The unmixed recordings for Tales of Never Letting Go were shelved away in a warehouse — fated to join the ranks of great lost albums. Until now.

Tom Bejgrowicz of Man Alive Records tracked down the tapes and secured licensing from Warner Bros. to release the album. In the ’90s, Bejgrowicz was involved with influential independent labels Revelation and Century Media, and he’d long kept Miltown and its members on his radar.

It took roughly 25 years for Bejgrowicz to connect with the right people to make a release possible.

Miltown recording at Long View Farm in North Brookfield, MA. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Bejgrowicz brought in McTernan to properly mix the songs, and Tales of Never Letting Go was finally given a proper release on Sept. 5.

And while the record feels like a message from another era, it doesn’t sound like a relic. Miltown may have been a band of its time, but it produced a batch of songs that managed to stay fresh and relevant even though they had remained hidden for nearly three decades.

Some of the material has been circulating for years; Miltown released their demos and EPs on Bandcamp, where many tracks from Tales of Never Letting Go appear in rawer form.

The newly released album pushes the band’s vision over the finish line: the material has been tightened, in some cases renamed, and given a final mix that highlights the crackling energy of these tunes.

“Cleverer” opens the album, serving as a bridge between punk rock and Tool: furious pacing, angular dynamics, and lyrics that are spare yet incisive.

“Unraveling” is a study in contrasts; the lyrics are steeped in despair, yet the music is powerful and soaring. Turning the line “no longer glad to be alive” into a singalong refrain shows a startling craft seldom found in modern rock.

The album’s title track is the great alt-rock hit that never was — tumultuous, cryptic, and smart indie rock: appealing yet uncompromised.

Much of the album looks inward, but in moments like “America Through a Windshield,” Miltown lashes out against the homeland’s cultural rot. The bombing of Hiroshima inspired “8-6-45,” though the lyrics reference the 5th — the day before the bombing. Go ponder, friends.

That’s the beauty of Tales of Never Letting Go: it makes the listener think, consider emotions and situations rolling out of the speakers as if they were their own, yet fashioned to be received as pure sonic tonic.

It’s too bad Miltown ended before they truly began. Comfort lies in the knowledge that music this good cannot be kept hidden away forever — it finds its way to people when they need it.

Scott McLennan covered music for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from 1993 to 2008. He then contributed music reviews and features to The Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Portland Press Herald, and WGBH, as well as to The Arts Fuse. He also operated the NE Metal blog to provide in-depth coverage of the region’s heavy metal scene.