Discovering that your singer has been plotting to have his wife killed would be a shock enough to give most musicians serious pause, but the four non-murderous members of US metalcore giants As I Lay Dying have wasted no time in rising from the ashes of former colleague Tim Lambesis's grim downfall. Wovenwar are a very different beast from AILD, aided greatly by new frontman Shane Blay's soothing but robust tones and the band's reborn enthusiasm for making soulful but strident modern metal. This is an instantly lovable, consistent and convincing debut, brimming with razor-sharp melodies and subtly expressed technical prowess – a marked improvement on AILD's rather one-dimensional sound, and a breath of fresh air for a metalcore scene that does tend to chase its own creative tail. Joyously anthemic, the likes of Death to Rights, Profane and The Mason revel in their own redemptive power and sound very much like the first fruits of a potentially world-beating meeting of minds.