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Roxx / 3 Frogz Records
by Craig Hartranft, 11.30.2013
This is the end. At least that's what founder, guitarist, and vocalist Jimmy Brown has said. Hear What I Say, their tenth album, will be the last album for seminal Christian speed, thrash, progressive metal Deliverance. But they've come back before.
I recall seeing Deliverance several times at the Cornerstone festival back in the Eighties during their speed/thrash metal period. They were heavy and intense as they delivered their Gospel and holiness message. Christians found them to be the answer to the secular Metallica; their detractors cast aspersions calling them mere clones of the famous band. But they found their place in the Christian ghetto, even some mainstream praise.
While hardcore fans will grieve the loss of the band, they should find Hear What I Say an adequate and interesting farewell. The album reflects upon some of the band's best periods, Weapons of Our Warfare and Stay of Execution. Songs like The Annals of Subterfuge and Angst are more crushing thrash like their early period. Pass and Where Eagles Dare somewhat, but tend more towards traditional heavy metal. The rest of the songs capture Deliverance experimentation with progressive metal as the did in the early to mid Nineties. The odd song out is A Perfect Sky, where Deliverance gets in touch with their softer side; it's mostly Brown singing over acoustic guitar. Overall, Hear What I Say is solid material, a fine good bye for the band. Alternatively, for those who haven't heard them since the Nineties, or those just coming to them, might wonder why they're hanging up their guitar as this is rather fresh and entertaining metal.
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Hear What I Say will be the last album for seminal Christian metal band Deliverance, and they do so in fine form, revisiting the best periods of their musical career.
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