After witnessing their concert in OJC Phoenix, supporting Facegrind and Born From Pain I decided to ask one of them about their demo recording. I immediately received a copy so let�s review now shall we! Supporting small metalbands is always a good thing ain�t it? The intro is taken from the movie Boondock Saints, which I have seen many times, so that�s a good start. It�s the final speech of the brothers right before they blow the gangster brains out, letting their voice be heard. So that�s why the next song is entitled �Spiritus Sancte�, taken from that particular movie. It kicks in immediately. Now on their website they describe themselves as a nu-metal band, but I think they are a bit harder, towards thrash/deathmetal. Fast riffs and loud screaming. Only the drummer doesn�t seem to be abled to keep up with the fast parts. There are melodic parts in it though. Too bad that there�s no singing involved. The screams I find rather lousy. It all sounds the same. �Blood Stained Hands� is the next song Birthmark tries to please us with. The poor drumming does become reasonably entertaining in this song so that�s a positive thing. The song gets my head moving a bit which means I�m getting pleased. But the vocals are too annoying. Dammit! Up next is the song �Suffocate�, which starts off quietly, for about 50 seconds. It is a nice melodic part though, with distortion mixed through it. Then the terror begins. I don�t find the music that bad, it�s just the vocals. The last track is also the best I think. �Shadows Of Death� really kicks ass as it comes to speed. If it just had a blastbeat I would be a lot happier. But its still headbanging material. A melodic part is the bridge of this song as well, but they seem to end all the melodic parts by tapping harder on the hi-hat and opening it up a bit. More variety is desirable I might say. This is also the only song which has a gentle ending. Now lets see, we�ve got cool riffs, with entertaining but not impressing drums, and really lousy vocals. Improvement will definitely come, since these guys have only been playing since 2001. In my opinion they should search for replacement on the vocal front, but hey, I�m just a stupid critic anyway. I definitely respect what you�re doing and I wish you the best of luck. Hope to catch you sometime soon again! Review By Demondust