Deliverance – Deliverance

Frightening, awe-inspiring, and absolutely relentless, Deliverance's self-titled album dropped onto the scene in 1989 with all the finesse of a metallic sledgehammer across the forehead. In 1987, Deliverance had made their presence known in dramatic fashion on the California Metal compilation (a sampler in the vein of Metal Blade's Metal Massacre compilations) with Attack being the very first thrash/speed metal song with a strong Christian message to ever be released. Overwhelmed with anticipation, fans lined up for two years trying to buy more of this West Coast speed metal as phenomenal as anything released by Exodus, Death Angel, Metallica, and Anthrax. The long wait ended with the release of 1989's self-titled debut, and fans were not disappointed. Having enlisted the production skills of famed mainstream metal producer Bill Metoyer (Flotsam and Jetsam, Trouble, Fates Warning, DRI, Slayer) the debut exuded all the pure destructive power for which fans could have hoped. Every note is executed with jaw-dropping levels of scientific precision. Jimmy's vocals are both powerful and soaring. The 2023 Retroactive reissue is a brand new 2022 Vinyl remaster (Rob Colwell of Bombworks Sound) and includes two non-LP demo songs as bonus tracks. This is pure metallic brilliance packaged with a genius 12-page booklet laid out by NoLifeTilMetal's Scott Waters. This 2023 picture disc color vinyl fixes any song transition issues from the past. This is THE ultimate reissue of one of a handful of Christian metal's ultimate albums.