Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the main event.

In this corner, we have the champions: Stryper, self-professed rockers for Christ, presumably the most angelic bunch of guys ever to wear leather pants. And in this corner, the challengers: Slayer, a depraved lot given to creepy ramblings about blood sacrifice and rotting flesh. This is a battle for disciples in a war that's been raging since the dawn of time: the war between good and evil.

Stryper sets about winning us over to its way of thinking with a saccharine hodgepodge of PTL sentiment. The melodies aren't half-bad, but born-again Styx just doesn't wash with your average slam fan.

Slayer retaliates with a cacophony of genuinely offensive satanic drivel that will probably win over a couple of thrash fans who've already lost their hearing anyway.

All told, it's a split decision. Stryper's disciples will finally decide that Dylan did it better. The Slayer contingent will go back to old Ozzy records. The rest of us, who are in this for rock & roll and not religion, will go out and buy the new Guns n' Roses album. And the forces of good and evil, neither finding a worthy champion in this arena, will battle on. (RS 536)

KIM NEELY