Deliverance

Item: Deliverance
Author: Michael Bloodgood

(1989)

Reviewed by Michael Bloodgood

Discogs Bandcamp Apple Music

Label Intense RecordsHeaven's Metal #21October/November 1989

speed metal thrash metal

The first time I ever heard of Deliverance, I was upstairs at the Whiskey in L.A. getting ready for our show and, right up above the window of the dressing room, was their sticker. I immediately liked these guys because I have the same "habit" of putting a Bloodgood sticker in every dressing room we've been in.

If you love those little guitar interludes during the breaks between videos on MTV's "Headbanger's Ball", you're gonna love this band. If you're searching for a good alternative to Slayer, let alone Anthrax or Metallica, then run, don't walk, to your nearest record shop and shell out the bucks for this tape or CD (no vinyl is being released on this one).

Plenty of guitars (properly placed in the mix I might add) dominate the feel of the record with the vocals being, amazingly enough, easy to understand. Vocalist Jimmy Brown has just the right amount of gravel per ounce and will get any thrash/speed/moshin' dude off his rocker.

What I found lacking was the low-end sonics of the production. The bass was hard to decipher in the overall mix (of course I'm a bit prejudice in this area) and the drums were overall too transparent sounding. The toms sounded more like Quaker Oats tubs than exploding cannons and the kicks didn't have enough meat in them.

Lyrically, Deliverance shows a lot more depth than most of their peers. The general theme of the record is evangelistic and is packed with warnings to the unbeliever; a real "turn or burn" album. But Deliverance also talks about 1 Corinthians 13 in "No Love" and they do a remake of the old gospel hymn "Jehovah Jirah", a version you definitely won't hear on TBN!

Deliverance is a band that truly understands their audience and their particular genre of metal. Nothing pretentious or Mickey Mouse with this band. Typical of just about anyone's first project, the band sometimes slips out of the pocket and some of the guitar solos could have been better, but none of these things takes away from the big picture of a very strong first release. I look forward to hearing more from these guys.