*** “YOU FAT B**TARDS” Faith No More; <i> Warner Reprise Video $19.98</i> : <i> Items in this periodic survey of pop-related books, videocassettes and laser discs are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to five (a classic). </i>

Faith No More is the metal-tinged, San Francisco art band that after bumping around the underground circuit for most of the last decade recently reached the top 10 with “Epic,” a funk/rap/metal hybrid that was possibly the roughest-edged single ever to reach heavy rotation on MTV. The band’s on-stage energy is legendary in hard-rock circles, and “You Fat B**tards” is a straightforward concert video, no effects, no fancy angles, no swooping crane shots, hardly a hint of the merrily thrashing London crowd. The focus here is on lead singer Mike Patton, an athletic kid given to weirdly compulsive behavior on stage--rolling the mike between his hands as if he were unspooling twine; spreading his arms and careering about the stage like a pretend airplane--strangely disassociated from the rest of the group, who pump out power chords and eerie keyboard drones behind him. This is a good one, kind of the “Hendrix in the West” of art rock.