Sacrament of the Sick

Adding the scumto Dominus vobi . . ., Pungent Stench's Masters of Moral—Servants of Sincomes at a good time for all lapsed Catholics smirking over the clergy's new old image as retirement community for child molesters. Not that band members planned it that way; they've been blaspheming the Holy See with over-the-top vulgarity, black humor, and minor variations in death metal for about a decade, and it's only happy coincidence that their latest's most compelling tunes, riffwise, carry the titles "Rex Paedophilus," "Viva il Vaticano," and "Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me."

Delivered with photos of the act being "friendly" with first Holy Communioners, accurate tabernacle art, and an enclosed "Book of Prayer" that deciphers the lyrics obscured by the "singer" 's built-to-code death belching, the CD's a laff riot if you bother to dig for jokes. If you think Pontius Pilate & the Nail Driving Five is a rib tickler for a band name, you're probably already sharing a little mental space with these guys. And even if you don't, the wall of guitars and drums leans toward orthodox metal more than blastbeat, with frequent diversions for mid-paced rhythm and power chords that destroy the world. As black iron goes, it's state of the art.