Outer Bevel Opacity Problems

Okay, so this is driving me up the bleeping censored wall, here...

I'm adding an outer bevel to some text...but for some reason, the darker the shadow, the less opaque the bevel.

Have a look:

That red should not be showing through; that should be black. Or at least dark gray.

Nothing I can find fixes that.

I've got Opacity for Shadows at 100% and the Mode is set to Normal; by all rights, that should give me a solidly opaque outer bevel, shouldn't it?

And the Highlight isn't entirely opaque, either.

I've gone looking for tutorials; every last stinking one of them deals with Inner Bevel, never mentioning Outer.

If you cannot make this look like something solid, where the background doesn't show through, what possible good is the effect???

Help me out, here? Thanks.