FALL ALBUM ROUNDUP

SLAYER

“Divine Intervention”

American

* * * 1/2

Megadeth fans sew patches on the backs of their denim jackets; the most devoted of Slayer fans tend to do things like carve the band’s name into their flesh. (One such disfigured arm makes its way into the album artwork here.)

Slayer--the father of black metal, the codifier of thrash--may have been outflanked on the left by the ultra-extremity of groups like Obituary and Cannibal Corpse, and on the right by the tremendous mainstream success of onetime peers Metallica, but the band has no peers at the extreme.

This time around, Slayer has abandoned the sludgy proto-grunge thing and the crossover riff-ditties for a return to its horrorcore roots, with spooky modal guitar solos and something of the formal purity of AC/DC.

The monotone, triple-speed songs of death and mass destruction--cautionary tales drawn with a finer hand than Oliver Stone from the coarser half of mass media--are as tuneless as they are intense, gargled out by singer Tom Araya.

Sure to draw gasps on both sides of the political aisle: “Divine Intervention” . . . a paean to Rush Limbaugh.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).