One thought on “Deliverance: Weapons Of Our Warfare-1990.”

1. hells_unicorn, January 26th, 2017
   Written based on this version: 1990, CD, Intense Records

   There has been and will likely continue to be a strong divergence between what constitutes thrash metal, with some arguing that much like its darker cousins on the extremest end of the spectrum that it is ideologically exclusive, while others might speak to a certain stylistic orthodoxy that ruled out some less evil sounding variations that developed during the last couple years of the sub-genre’s first run. In opposition to what is arguably an overly specific definition belying the premise of this debate, I prefer to see thrash metal through the lens of aggression on the musical side, and through the general idea of conflict on the lyrical end. Consequently, should a band opt for either to delve into the subjects of the occult, war, politics, satire/comedic mockery, or even taking the road not so often traveled of thrashing for Christ, as long as a sense of struggle in the words is accompanying a raging barrage of superior riff work, the style is perfectly represented. Then again, it is more becoming of a listener to see thrash as a singular style with multiple facets, rather than a rag-tag movement with several sub-groups at odds with each other, thus making the seminal works of Tourniquet and Slayer capable of coexisting, despite being ideologically opposed.

   This admittedly long wave of qualifications, while a bit much, are necessary to fully appreciate a band like Deliverance, which left their mark not so much by redefining or even necessarily expanding the thrash style, but distilling all the best elements into a highly effective and fairly distinctive sound that could go head to head with several seminal late 80s Bay Area acts, and actually did in terms of messaging. At their creative peak stands Weapons Of Our Warfare, a towering display of raw passion with a fair bit of stylistic nuance that was fairly common in the early 1990s, but also expressed in a way that still carries a strongly 80s mindset. It is often and unfairly pigeonholed as a Slayer knockoff, whereas the truth is closer to a brilliant amalgamation of mid-80s speed/thrash with some traces of the more melodic, almost power metal-like character of bands like Agent Steel and Sanctuary, alongside the more nuanced mixture of neck-destroying high octane thrash of mid-80s Dark Angel and the slower, grooving feel that came in with later 80s Metallica and Testament.

   Occasionally things will lean into the blinding speed and fury typical to Slayer, particularly in the cases of “This Present Darkness” and “Greetings Of Death”, the latter having been original written back in 1985 and couple pass for a shorter version of something on Hell Awaits, though the crisp and punchy guitar tone suggests something closer in sound to Darkness Descends. However, these songs only tell a small part of the story of an album that definitely takes a fair number of cues from the haunting, ballad-laced tendencies of Testament’s The New Order and the punchy chugs of …And Justice For All. A good example of this is the occasionally fast but mostly mid-paced stomp of the title song “Weapons Of Our Warfare”, which starts of pounding the ground in a manner reminiscent of “The Frayed Ends Of Sanity” and then ups the speed factor a bit to a crushing stride that recalls much of Twisted Into Form, though with a vocal display that occasionally reminds of John Cyriis and the early days of Warrel Dane. Jimmy Brown’s versatile vocals take on even more of an iconic USPM character on the ballad “23”, which sounds like “Sanitarium” reinterpreted through the lens of Sanctuary or even early Queensryche at times.

   While the conservatism of this album relative to its year of release is fairly clear, it is also largely a product of its day and exemplifies the longer and more nuanced character that thrash metal was beginning to assert. The clearest example of this is the epic length thrasher “Flesh And Blood”, which has a lot of the Dark Angel hyper-driven tendencies of the shorter songs found on here, but also cycles through a number of varying influences and comes pretty close to predicting where Heathen would go on Victims Of Deception, mixing in a number of varying riff sets and even throwing in a ballad middle-section with a Skolnick-inspired guitar solo that comes seemingly out of nowhere. Naturally there are some other near equally impressive moments where this sense of elaborateness comes into play, namely the melodic cruiser “Solitude” and the chunky, slower paced bruiser “Slay The Wicked”. All the while, the words that tend to intermingle with all of these impressive instrumental performances paint a compelling picture of a militant wing of Christian soldiers engaged in spiritual warfare that works quite effectively for its adopted style.

   Had this album been produced and put out about 2 or 3 years earlier, which could have happened given where this band had already gone on a number of lesser releases in the mid 1980s, it would have likely been more widely hailed as an exemplary example of thrash metal’s versatility and potency. But seeing this album in retrospect, it doesn’t really matter when it came out or how many bands it drew fairly obvious influences from, it is a furious slab of thrash metal that rivals all of the classics that came roaring out of the Bay Area and New York scenes a few year prior. Regardless of one’s position on the subject of religion, this is one the best thrash albums to come out of the early 1990s, edging out the solid yet less raging works of west coast mainstays Exodus and Testament, and also 2nd tier players like Defiance. If thrash is best understood as a form of sonic warfare, these west coast Christian thrashers definitely came packing their full arsenal.

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