Stroke - First In Last Out (1999)

On their full-length, self-titled debut album -- also known as First In Last Out -- England's Stroke lay out a moody, sometimes menacing blend of hard rock-tinged industrial and trip-hop which relies mostly on electronic instrumentation for its impact. Yet the group has a sense of subtlety as well, never going so far over the top as to turn their darkness into a cartoonish caricature. It's an extremely promising debut that suggests Stroke could develop into a very distinctive band.