You’d be right to be suspicious of a British band that sounds so American. After all, the consensus is that even the heaviest of England’s hard rockin’ merchants are several levels more tuneful and artful than their crude, visceral Stateside counterparts. So when an act like Lukan comes roaring out of the Isles, with the acidy-blues manifest of the denims and the frayed-nerve distortion of the flannels, it’s impossible to not to notice the band’s obvious Yankee influence, let alone ignore their sheer physical presence.

With the bombast of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” booming in the background, vocalist Jamie Evans summons the incendiary, white blues howling of Paul Rogers, while guitarist Tim Wilson hammers his best Jimmy Page-styled riffage during the band’s debut EP.

Opening with the powderkeg blast of “Mirrorball,” a sort of Whitesnake-meets-Def Leppard explosive anthem, it’s hard not to get caught up in the band’s forceful momentum, charged with cavernous kickdrums, scathing lyrical rants, and lysergic-drenched guitar noodlings. By the time the band’s pensive “How Sad That Makes Me” turns a corner to become a venomous Alice In Chains-styled brooder, it’s apparent that Lukan are headed for the throat instead of the gray matter. Which will probably make them whipping boys for the British music press, for the time being. But only just until they break big in America with such an impressive debut.