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Deliverance - Deliverance
Reviewed by Eddie Risdal in 12/24/2009
Since US thrashers DELIVERANCE are a white metal band they obviously have been ignored by many metal fans that think they are on the wrong side of the fence, but they are really missing out some great music. The band formed way back in 1985, and in celebration of the 20 years anniversary of their debut album I thought I'd make a retrospect review of it. Personally I didn't discover "the D" until a few years later, probably in 1992, and by then they already had released four albums. The first years they were often referred to as a Metallica clone, according to band chief, and only surviving member through all the years, Jimmy P Brown II. But I hear just as much Slayer in the speedy parts, while the more melodic and acoustic parts sure bear the influence of Metallica. Despite the often striking similarity it's not a bad thing at all when they do it as good as they do it on "Deliverance".
Now we already have the style set. When pressing play they kick off from the first second with "Victory" and before the vocals come in you should already have the foot (or neck) moving. Then it is the vocals... Mr Brown shure has a special voice, which probably needs a little time to get used to. But what I experienced when I had a revisiting of the album, after a long time without listening to DELIVERANCE, was how I actually have missed his voice. So at least to me he's doing something right. A lot of Slayerish riffs are followed up by a more Metallica a la "Ride The Lightning" lead part.
Second out is the dangerously groovy "No Time", brilliant in it's simplicity, while the "band anthem" "Deliverance" is up next, also focusing more on grooves than speed. "If You Will" starts epic and majestic before it transforms into a thrash rifforama. "The Call" is back in the more controlled pace, perfect to move big crowds simultaneously with. While "No Love" also is a relatively slow paced track" and "Blood Of The Covenant" may be the fastest track on the album, the biggest surprise is track eight, "Jeovah Jireh", which is originally an old psalm which has been "Deliveranced". Not the insane speed riffing way though, but pretty close. The song works pretty well and you can't spot the big difference from the rest of the songs by more than that it's a bit more melodic all the way. "Temporary Insanity" is a double bass drum song, and here you can hear the drawback of the production; the drums sounds a bit sloppy. Not much worse than the production Slayer had in the eighties though.
"Awake" rounds off an unusual strong debut album in a good way. Personally I don't pay much attention to lyrics, so if you don't either you should check this out, no matter how much you dislike Jesus in your metal. If you want more music like Slayer and Metallica did it in the eighties you can safely check out this and their second album "Weapons Of Our Warfare". Although I rate this as a classic I withdraw one point as some songs lacks a little bit to be fantastic, they
are just very good.
PS: The original version of the album is long out of print, so on the re-release you also get two bonus tracks, the songs "A Space Called You" and "Attack", originally released in 1987 on a compilation album covering Californian metal bands.
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