Band:	Lucky Striker 201
Album:	Night Room
Style:	Industrial metal
Release date:	2003
A review by:	Deadsoulman

01. Burn
02. Life's A dream
03. A liquid-blue quest
04. Le reflet de son âme
05. The werewolf metaphor
06. YSBF

LS 201 is a young unsigned band from France. Don't run away because of the name a la Blink 182, here this is indus metal. Night Room is their first demo, so ineveitably the influences are obvious: electro, indus, gothic mixed with metal, for a result I find much easier to access than Nine Inch Nails, even if the songs do not have the quality of songwriting and the profoundness of those made by Trent Reznor's band. About the sound, one word to say that both the band and Patrick Emonts have made a good job. For a demo, the production is almost perfect.

'Burn': this song clearly has tunes inspired by Nine Inch Nails and Filter, on the low-paced tempo, the way of singing, even the arrangements. Nevertheless, it is more metal than NIN, due to the huge guitar sound and some growlings. A good song anyway.

'Life's a dream': I bet my balls that Caedes likes Oomph! [for those who don't know, Oomph! is a tremendous German indus metal band]. This song is a plagiarism of what you can find on the last two albums of Oomph!. Furthermore, Caedes's voice, all along the album, is exactly the same as Dero's. And yet this is my favourite song of the demo [maybe because I am a fan of Oomph!].

'A liquid-blue quest': I don't know why t-his song makes me think about Depeche Mode, even, if Oomph!'s tunes are still obvious. Maybe it is something in the drawling vocals, or in the electro arrangements. This song has also tunes of Sisters of Mercy, on the pronunciation, and on the overall feeling.

'Le reflet de son âme': this song is quite similar to the previous one, the influence of Sisters of Mercy is palpable. The depressive movie dialogues in French add a dark side to the album. Not much to say, just this is a very cool song.

'The werewolf metaphor': This last song shows the real personality of Lucky Striker 201. This is a long wave of pure indus, where the influences are very well digested. Finally they sound like a true entity. On the first part they have no cause to be envious of the best indus bands. The last part [a ghost track?] may put off the most narrow-minded metalheads because because of its technoid sounding.

The only reproach I want to make is about the use of a beat box instead of a real drummer: the sound of the beat is much too cold compared to real drums. For the rest... Labels, move your asses!