Christian rock, eh. It gets a bad press. By critics insisting that by sanitizing rock and roll, the devil’s music after all, you’re removing its key essence: its dirt.

Except nobody told Philadelphia’s mewithoutYou what’s expected of a Christian rock group. Sure, biblical allusions abound throughout their songs and lead singer Aaron Weiss has gone on record to declare Jesus his rabbi. But the band look unkempt, with facial hair a band trend, making them the very antithesis of the clean-living church-goer. What’s more their sound sprawls or “straddles about 500 different genres at once”, as Metal Hammer would have it. P.O.D they ain’t.

Christian rock, eh. It’s about to salvage its reputation. If this third album by mewithoutYou produced by Brad Wood (Smashing Pumpkins, Pete Yorn) is anything to go by.

(4¼/5)