So furiously bleak are the Obsessed that they make Motörhead seem ironic and any lighter metal sound effete. Idolized for years by chronic headbangers, this D.C. trio has also won fans in Fugazi, L7 and Henry Rollins. Now the Obsessed's major-label debut explains why. "Decimation," "Climate of Despair" and "Mourning" exhume the ghost of Black Sabbath with such desperate fidelity that the troglodyte riffing and anvilbang drumming of these believers sound freshly scary. And as singer-guitarist Wino wails on about "making love in a mausoleum" and being "dragged on trial before the mutant king," they bulldoze through metal's absurdity into some kind of creepy glory. (RS 681)

PAUL EVANS