Reviewed by Joshua Mason

American artist Phoenix (Nick Vino) tosses his hat into the Christian rapcore scene with this, his debut release. Despite cover art resembling the recent Kutless release 'Hearts Of The Innocent' don't be fooled. Phoenix uses a crafted mix of rapcore and heavy guitars to spread his message. While overall the CD has a good sound I did find the vocals on most of the choruses to be lacking. Phoenix is an exceptional rapper artist but I felt the double dubbed vocals on the chorus just weren't up to par compared to his rapping abilities. Due to this the songs end up lacking certain fullness overall. The best cut was "Hand In Hand", a masterful combination of rap and acoustic guitar. The line I most liked was "I'll fight the system/I'll stand for the kingdom." Also worth mentioning is the song "Run", starting with a piano interlude and then merging into heavy guitars, this was really effective. The track that didn't work was "Blood Flow" which, with its techno sound, didn't seem to fit the style of the rest of the CD.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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