Pride Tiger

If a magic genie transformed The Lucky Ones into a vehicle, it would be a custom van with shag carpet interior and an airbrushed image of a shirtless barbarian on the side. With former members of Vancouver metal fiends Three Inches of Blood in their line-up, Pride Tiger shift gears away from that band’s hectic tempos and focus on blasts of ’70s-inspired rock. "No One’s Listening” and "Fill Me In” offer rich melodies and head nodding tempos. A small handful of other tracks threaten to collapse under the weight of too much artificial boogie woogie action but the group rein it in, for the most part, to focus on heavy tunefulness and adept musicianship. On some of the disc’s tunes, the spectre of Thin Lizzy, and their dual guitar harmonies, lurks skilfully in the background. The Lucky Ones drives hard with a good supply of nitrous oxide on hand to pin the pedal to the metal.