Relevent

Listeners definitely shouldn't judge this CD by its cover, or its surface sonics. Despite their fondness for ghoulish get-ups and extreme-metal accoutrements, the members of Relevent are old-school moralists; in Display's liner notes, vocalist Angel begins by thanking "God and Jesus Christ." It's no surprise, then, that the material here regularly confronts injustice in its least holy forms.

Related Content

• The Latter-day Saints have come marching into Denver, but some are hipper than others
  January 26, 2012
• Photos: Top ten Christmas gifts from the Dollar Tree
  December 19, 2011
• Review: Slim Cessna's Auto Club at the Bluebird Theater, 12/30/11
  December 31, 2011
• "Yes, They're Real," the fourth entry in the "Week of a Woman" photo contest
  October 7, 2011
• Tim Tebow's rib injury v. Patriots like Jesus's wounds? Stop crucifying him!
  January 18, 2012

More About

• Jesus Christ

"They" defends free will in the face of authority and ignorance, while the two-part title song plays like a face-off between a fed-up thrasher and the Antichrist. The band changes pace with "Return," an unexpectedly pensive meditation on regret, before unleashing a rain of riffs leading to "What Lies Inside," in which becoming "a friend to thee" represents the only possible respite from hopelessness. A pair of hidden tracks follow: an instrumental that dangles the prospect of grace, and a second number that snatches it back.

Prey or pray? Either way, it's a Relevent choice.