Rock acts around the world should break out the white flags and start waving them furiously. It's time to surrender, suckers, because Jack and Meg White are back and they aren't taking prisoners.

While not as instantly commercially accessible as 2003's "Elephant," The White Stripes [ tickets ]' "Get Behind Me Satan" is a devilishly masterful epic that knocks out Beck's "Guero" as the rock record to beat in 2005.

The album starts off with a kick in the teeth as Meg whips out the beats and Jack strums notes as thick as peanut butter on the ferocious single "Blue Orchid." It's flower power at its finest as Jack reaches into his deep bag of tricks and unleashes his screeching falsetto. "You got a reaction," he sings. "You got a reaction, didn't you?" Yes, we certainly did, and it's something akin to standing on chairs and applauding like a buffoons.

The album doesn't let up one iota, even as the music changes from bizarre folk-pop on "As I Ugly as I Seem" to piano-driven country in "I'm Lonely (But I Ain't That Lonely Yet)." The most impressive aspect about the set, at least in terms of artistic growth, is how little Jack relies on his electric guitar. He's an axe-man of the first order--one of the few true guitar heroes of this generation--but only three of the 13 tracks are electric-guitar based. That's scary.

Satan had better be frightened. But, then again, so should everyone else.