When the Chicago quartet Bible of the Devil first surfaced on the scene about six years ago, it was hard not to hear the musicians as a well-intentioned but nonetheless tongue-in-cheek goof on metal, given the band members' pedigrees in other non-metal local groups, the over-the-top band name and cumbersome indie album titles such as "Firewater at My Command" (2002) and "Brutality, Majesty, Eternity" (2005). But guitarist-vocalists Mark Hoffmann and Nate Perry, drummer Greg Spalding and bassist Darren Amaya are the real deal, synthesizing a wide array of classic-metal influences, attacking them with a modern stoner-rock/doom attitude and delivering the head-banging goods stronger than ever with songs such as "Hijack the Night" and "The Turning Stone" from the new album "Freedom Metal."

"This isn't the perverse concept of 'freedom' in Dubya's sense," Hoffmann says of the new disc's moniker. "We're talking about 'freedom' in the purest, Hobbesian sense: 'A free man is he that is not hindered to do what he hath the will to do.' And metal." And metal, indeed: Sample the gleefully clangorous twin-guitar clamor for yourself at www.myspace.com/bibleofthedevil, order the new disc through the group's Web site at www.bibleofthedevil.com or join it to celebrate the release at a free show at the Cobra Lounge, 235 N. Ashland, starting at 9 p.m. on Dec. 6.