Who knew that it would take 3 Canadian guys from a metal band and a skater punk rocker, to come up with a commercially accessible hard rock record? One that’s reminiscent of everything I loved about 70’s Arena Rock? Well, it happened and I’m all for it! Actually, this kind of Melodic Hard Rock never really goes away. But leave it to the band PRIDE TIGER to keep the torch burning bright. PRIDE TIGER is Matt Wood on lead vocals and drums, Mike Payette on bass, and dual guitarists Bob Froese and lead axeman Sunny Dhak, who also writes the songs. After a few years, the band was signed to EMI Canada and were about to start work on their debut CD. The recording of ‘The Lucky Ones’ brought the guys down from Vancouver to the Sunset Lodge Recording Studio in L.A. The disc was produced, engineered and mixed by Matt Hyde (FU MANCHU, MONSTER MAGNET).
‘The Lucky Ones’ is filled with rousing riffs, huge hooks and a melodic flow throughout. The opening riff laden rocker is “Let’em Go”, that has a little DANKO JONES vibe going on. The pounding drums and driving rhythm section lead us right up to a nice fluid lead guitar solo. OK, I do hear a THIN LIZZY influence on this CD, but I wonder if the guys had ever heard the one and only release from a Norwegian band called STREET LEGAL (Thunderdome released in 2000)? You can hear this combination on songs like, “What Is It”, “No Ones Listening”, “Forget Everything”, “A New Jones” and the song that nails this influential sound, “Fill Me In”. You could say, this is where the band found “their sound”. Now don’t forget that the drummer is doing the singing and on the harder edged “It’s Only You” he reminds me of a young Gil Moore (TRIUMPH). The first single was “The White Witch Woman Blues”, complete with harp provided by bass player Mike. It looks like the second single will be “Let’em Go”. It’s funny that the CBC voted their song “Sweet Dreams” one of the top hard rock songs of 2006. That’s not all folks, we’ll wrap this up with the party anthem and title track “The Lucky Ones” , don’t let the jazzy intro fool you, these guys came, they saw and they partied. Do yourself a huge favor, be one of the lucky ones and buy some Canadian old school hard rock. Who knows, it just may come back into style.
