Deliverance

Deliverance burst onto the thrash scene in 1989 with their self titled debut laced with heavy riffage, Heathen esque vocals, and christian lyricism. Now I'm not religious by any means and normally songs preaching about god and jesus aren't my cup of tea as I'm quite secular in my views being an atheist but Deliverance is just to tight of a band for me not to like. They are by no means contenders as one of the best thrash acts of all time or even from California, but they do pack a serious punch with their sound. This album almost sounds like as if the songs on ...And Justice For All were shortened and you had David White from Heathen on vocals. The music is tight and the songs are cringely catchy. Some of the choruses and verse lines on this album are kind of cheesy if you aren't religious but if you are, then this shit is right up your alley.

The songs here are really well structured and the solos are crafted around the songs rather than just some frenzied chaotic lead line thrown in there for no reason. There is a lot of breaks and sudden start and stop riffs and then there is just riffs that grind along at a menacing mid tempo pace to them. Deliverance had a more melodic taste for songs to them they wouldn't bludgeon you with riffs like other thrash bands around this period. They were more on the fence of crafting memorable melodic tunes with vocal hooks and melodies take the chorus for "No Love" For example or the verse lines and pre chorus of "No Time". "Blood of the Covenant" is a full on thrasher which is a glimpse of would would come on their next release the following year. The only song here that just overly sucks is "Jehovah Jireh" which just by the title makes it easily skippable and the song is just a bit over preachy. All the other songs make it pretty obvious what their singing about as they all are about the same thing but they are nowhere near the level of shit "Jehovah Jireh" is. The rest of tunes here are pretty decent and it's stuff that if it comes up on shuffle I'd happily jam to as it's something different from the golden era of thrash.

The only downside about this record is that they make it way to obvious about the songs being about god with the exception of a track like "Temporary Insanity". Now I get it, it's christian metal but some bands were better at doing it without making the music over preachy and Deliverance would get better at this on their next release. This album here though makes it well known that they are a christian band and there is nothing wrong with that but I just don't think thrash metal is the greatest subgenre to use as a platform for those type of lyrics especially when they are as blatant as Slayer and Mercyful Fate are with the polar opposite spectrum of things. Deliverance is still a decent album nonetheless but if you aren't religious this album can seem way over preachy. The music is really good though and shouldn't be ignored the band was really tight right from the start.

For me this album is good but not great. The over preachy lyrical content is definitely the worst aspect for me and drags the album down a couple notches. I like several other christian metal bands like Barren Cross, Recon, and Tourniquet that do a better job of making the lyrical content in every single song not about the same damn topic. I'd recommend Deliverance to anyone religious into harder music that wants to delve into the thrash side of things without having to hear about the devil, hell, and black magic as those were popular topics that was written about by several thrash metal bands around the globe during the 80's. Not that this is bad by no means as it's a decent slab of christian thrash but Deliverance would massively improve upon this release lyrically and musically the following year with Weapons of Our Warfare.

Wherein thrash metal is concerned, there is only one question that need be asked, and that is does it thrash well? Anything beyond this is secondary, though obviously not wholly irrelevant, as questions of originality and messaging will naturally come into play for those who tend to be either overly particular or of too short an attention span to make room for more than the obligatory Big 4 offerings. In other words, genre saturation and lyrical diversity doesn't necessarily equal an inferior product, nor is arriving late in the game, all of which are charges that could be thrown at a number of bands that came out of the woodwork in the late 1980s. To their credit, Christian thrashers Deliverance have been at it since the earlier speed/thrash days of a few years earlier, and their 1989 debut and eponymous offering Deliverance tends to walk a fairly fine line between the primordial, traditional heavy metal tinged character of 1985 speed metal and the more dangerous character of latter day thrash metal.

This sense of having one foot in the early speed metal craze and the other in the later thrash metal one is perhaps best exemplified in the lack of inhibition in exploring mid-paced, melodic anthems to complement the neck-wrecking. The generally laid back and catchy yet heavy as an anvil character of anthems such as "No Time" and "Deliverance" have all the crushing guitar goodness of Metallica's "Escape" and Anthrax's "Medusa", but listen ever so slightly closer to the iconic character of early Metal Church. A big part of the equation that makes this lighter side of the band work so well is vocalist Jimmy Brown, who proves to be equally as adept at impersonating the crisp and clear high wails of Joey Belladonna and John Cyriis as he is the more jagged, still high pitched ravings of John Connelly and Mark Osegueda. Nevertheless, the generally melodic character of the songwriting, in spite of the percussive riffing style, and the generally lyrical and Skolnick-tinged take on the Hammett mode of shredding courtesy of Glenn Rogers (who departed soon after this album dropped) play a significant role in this as well.

It is important to keep in mind, though this album contains a fair number of speed metal trappings that give it an affinity for the likes of Agent Steel, Heathen and Toxik, that it is still equally as informed by the heavier ended Bay Area thrash sound that rose to prominence at the time of its release. The pummeling grooves of "The Call" definitely bring on the Metallica-inspired payload with a vengeance like a nod to ...And Justice For All, but with an audible bass line. But it's when gallop-happy speeders like "If You Will" and "Blood Covenant" hit the ears that this band's frenetic thrashing credentials are truly shown, and it's a thrill ride fit to rival the likes of The Ultra-Violence and Forbidden Evil. Likewise, although the speed thrashers "Victory" and "Awake" were written back in the earliest days of the band, they display a fair bit of forward-looking innovation somewhat reminiscent of the earliest works of Testament under the Legacy moniker that would come to find themselves on their seminal debut LP The Legacy, namely by having a melodic character still heavily trenched in NWOBHM trappings, but definitely anticipating that heavier and nastier guitar sound that would soon take over.

In contrast to a number of Deliverance's later works, this is one of those albums that has a strongly universal appeal to anyone who is either discovering the old glory days of speed and thrash metal first hand, or becoming interested in it through the slew of revivalist bands that rose to prominence not too long ago. The lyrics are a bit less abrasive, though still quite uncompromising, but overall this is one of those albums where the music is so enthralling that it can take all of the listener's attention. It's extremely well produced, well executed, and apart from the fact that it's a little bit mixed up in terms of what era/direction it seeks to emulate, it is a perfect illustration of how well this 80s sound still holds up today in spite of the continual advances in production gimmicks. Some bands sang about demons crushing angels, a smaller number preached that the opposite is occurring, but as long as something is getting crushed, the requirements of thrash stand fulfilled.

It seems most reviews I've read on the web of this Deliverance debut album are from Christian fans, so here is a review from the perspective of a 'secular' metal fan. Although it can be argued if such a lyrical direction is suited for such aggressive music, that argument can be set aside for another time & place. I knew of this band's name & seen it many times in the past, but never bothered to listen to them then. More recently, while seeking more good speed / thrash metal with quality vocals such as Agent Steel, Hirax, & early Death Angel, this band's name was mentioned, so I I got the original cassette of this album.

Having gotten the album & listened to it, I can say that this is overlooked 80s thrash metal, at least in general / secular metal circles, probably because its Christian. Lyrics aside though, musically, this crushes. It sounds somewhat like Christian metal's answer to Death Angel. It is similar high quality, crunching, heavy thrash metal with melodic yet powerful, aggressive vocals. The production sounds ahead of it's time, it's not just the common crunching, 'in your face' thrash metal guitars, but also has audible bass, & a great drum sound rarely heard on thrash metal albums. The musicianship & songwriting are both of a high caliber. The vocals deserve special mention, the guitarist / vocalist can definitely sing. His vocals are of similar high caliber as the vocals from Agent Steel, Hirax, Death Angel, & other similar bands.

This ranks with Believer's 'Extraction from Mortality' album as one of the strongest Christian thrash metal albums ever, the songs, musical performances, & production are all that good. High class, heavy 80s thrash, that, eh, 'crushes for Christ', Hehe.