Deliverance´s underrated records ...

What about Learn , What a Joke , Assimilation , great records from Big D forgotten by many ...

I like What a Joke quite a bit, esp the title track and the Black Sabbath cover. Haven't heard Learn or Assimilation in a long time.

What A Joke is my favorite D album. It’s brutally heavy with Jimmy’s tightest rhythm playing. I think it could of been better released as an EP with only the serious songs. But I guess the point of the album was to do the SOD thing...

What a Joke is great! I wore that cassette out back in the day. Love the guitar tone!
Learn is great too but in a different way. The Rain and Sanctuary are awesome songs I never get tired of hearing.

What a Joke is great, Lean has some good songs but never could get into Assimilation.

What do you guys think of the post-Assimilation albums? I haven't heard As Above - So Below (2007); Hear What I Say! (2013); or The Subversive Kind (2018).

glassprison wrote:

What do you guys think of the post-Assimilation albums? I haven't heard As Above - So Below (2007); Hear What I Say! (2013); or The Subversive Kind (2018).

From the more recent stuff, I definitely like “As Above- So Below” the best!

As Above So Below sounds kindda interesting , but I didn´t gave it enough spin to have the definitive conclusion . Hear What I Say has an horrid production , I still didn´t listen this album for real .

What a Joke is certainly a great album dismissed by many , but not me . Sounds like a mix between Anthrax Among the Living and somehting heavier like Exodus or Slayer .

From Jimmy:

I haven’t listened much to any of the material I’ve recorded over the last 3 decades... But, When preparing for shows, and trying to reinvent something, I thought it was important to do so finally... so, I will give you all my thoughts and summations on the body of work from my 34 year old baby called Deliverance...

Greetings of Death Demo -
I absolutely love this thing! It was us in raw form. No studio tricks, no gimmicks, it’s what we sounded like when you went to a show! Young, full of heart and just pure fun!

Self Titled -
This is where the turtle wax was applied vigorously to the Greetings sound. But, it was still us. Just under the seasoned wings of veteran producer Bill Metoyer... What I enjoy most is what I think every “return to form” album attempt is missing. Aggression meets Melody! This album is a very important centerpiece for me, and it was nice to revisit it after so many years...

Weapons of our Warfare -
A phenomenon and enigma to me! I feel that the era, time and place factor, and lack of musical choices for thrashing young believers was thin. And this fit the bill quite nicely! It didn’t scare parents of teenagers with growls and grunts! You could actually discern the lyrics. It was a safe album to play at church, home, school and clubs! But, with the exception of a few songs, I don’t feel it is that strong of an effort... And, if you only knew the behind the scenes issues, and all the things that ultimately had to be handed over to Bill Metoyer to mix and fix, maybe it wouldn’t be hailed as much... None the less, as the majority writer of the album, I accept the praise and cheers just like anything else as graciously as I can... I just don’t see it as the album that deserves the most attention... But, I was the artist, not the record buyer... So who am I to judge?

What A Joke -
Meh... some strong songs, some incredibly stupid ideas, and a terrible production... Had it been released as an E.P. With only the strong non comical songs, I think it may have been a worthwhile listen... On a more personal note, I have to say my wrist was on fire for that album! The rhythms and riffs were probably my finest hour as far as that style of thrash playing goes...

Stay of Execution -
As an exploratory transitional album goes, I think it’s pretty cool... Some very cool moments! And some not so cool moments! It was a learning curve, and you can really tell I was trying to find something musically... But the digging had just begun... There are some wonderful songs on there though...

Learn -
I read a comment on this thread that said this album was “boring”... LMAO!!!
I couldn’t agree more... The search was continually happening for what I wanted and was hearing in my head, but just couldn’t quite realize it... The last two tracks are the standouts for me, primarily Sanctuary...

River Disturbance-
Another on the Most Hated Lists of the D Catalog... However, my favorite above all of them... It had intense and amazing moments, the recording process was magical, and it was a moment in time that I’ll never forget... I loved recording that album more than anyone can know. And I think for an album that didn’t use any external EQ, only micing techniques and compression, it’s sonically amazing for 1994... The metal head that wanted heavy and fast just wasn’t going to appreciate this offering... I knew it then, and still see it now... Doesn’t matter though... This was an album I recorded for me as an artist... Not for the praise and cheers, but just for my and my mates to enjoy... I am very proud of this record to this very day... Always will be...

Camelot In Smithereens -
My first time at the helm of production. I was inexperienced! Had the tiniest budget ever known to a Deliverance album. All the sampling lawsuits were taxing the labels. And I wanted to make a concept album! In the end, it was destroyed, and I didn’t even care halfway through the recording anymore. The label had made its decree about all the samples, the book was denied, I didn’t have the musicians I wanted on the album except for Manny, and my vision had been trampled underfoot...

But the ReDux is going to fix all that...

Assimilation-
Never should’ve happened. I had a few good songs, but the situation was wrong, the production was wrong, the band was wrong, everything was wrong... And, it just should’ve never happened... Not then at least...

As Above So Below -
It was fun to work with Mike Phillips again... But overall, the album suffered from bad production and lack of coherency with the songs... But there are some cool moments on the album, and to be honest Mike Phillips did NOT receive the accolades he deserved for his work on that album. His solos were just perfect!

Hear What I Say -
Manny came back, Jason Sherlock graciously accepted our invitation, Mike Phillips returned, and I was somewhere lost in the middle... it started out exactly where I wanted, then work got busier and busier, and what was supposed to be an enigmatic thrash album like with the first few songs, it just took a nose dive... Kinda sad really... But I do like the Maiden cover a lot... It was fun...

The Subversive Kind -
I agree with most of what has been said about this release.
1. Doesn’t sound like Deliverance. Correct, it doesn’t...
2. It wasn’t a return to the original sound. Correct. It really wasn’t as I had forgotten what the original sound of D was...
3. The writing was weak. Yep! I couldn’t agree more. My head just wasn’t there honestly.
I do think that Jim, Victor, Glenn and myself made a great little E.P. It just wasn’t what was promised... A return to the old days of Deliverance... There were similarities, but it just wasn’t it...

Now, I want to say something without sounding like an arrogant prick. But Brian Khairullah and Chris Hyde if he were here can back me up on this statement! I have always been the. 90% writer if not 100%... I would use parts, also use full songs of others like “Temporary Insanity” music by Glenn Rogers, “Slay The Wicked”, Bought by Blood” music and lyrics by George Ochoa.

So when I read statements like “Jimmy suffered from not having a writing partner on this or that album”, I take it as a bit of an insult. Deliverance was a band! And the guys who had the most stake claimed in it were Brian Khairullah and Chris Hyde in the early days, than Manny Morales in the latter days... But I have always been the principle songwriter, and never depended on anyone to help me except for my producer. And I’ve worked with some great producers; John and Dino Elefante, Bill Metoyer, George Ochoa and Terry Scott Taylor. I depended on them for their advice, arrangements, input, etc... So when I read statements like that, it just creams my corn... :

Well, it was nice visiting with you all... I want to thank you all for the kind words.

Take care all, come by an visit me me whenever you have time...

Cheers,
JPBII
www.jpbii.com
https://www.youtube.com/c/JimmyPBrownII

I actually like Hear What I Say, sounds like 80's thrash production.

Would love to hear an entire album recapturing the melody and aggression that made D so special. A combo of the S/T (melody) and What a Joke (aggression) would be cool!

steelers wrote:

Would love to hear an entire album recapturing the melody and aggression that made D so special. A combo of the S/T (melody) and What a Joke (aggression) would be cool!

I agree!

steelers wrote:

Would love to hear an entire album recapturing the melody and aggression that made D so special. A combo of the S/T (melody) and What a Joke (aggression) would be cool!

That was basically what "Weapons" was about , but leaning towards the "melodic" side ...

Jimmy has stated on many instances that "River Disturbance" has always been his favourite D album but I don´t see anything really special with this one ... I remeber buying it back in late 2001 and I feeling it as weird for a "D" record , and lacking heaviness ...

anthrax_fan wrote:

Jimmy has stated on many instances that "River Disturbance" has always been his favourite D album but I don´t see anything really special with this one ... I remeber buying it back in late 2001 and I feeling it as weird for a "D" record , and lacking heaviness ...

I could be wrong... but Jimmy had increasingly become less interested with thrash and to some extent “metal in general” over the years. I wouldn’t say he’s as polar as Geoff Tate... but similar. From what I gather, he’s more into Bowie and electronic music.

But that’s not to say he doesn’t appreciate metal anymore. It’s just not his favorite genre like when he was a teenager or in his 20s.

Out of everything after the 1st 3 (of which Self Titled is still my favorite), I get the most play out of Learn.

I think their most underrated album is Camelot in Smithereens. I think that was a fantastic album. I’m not saying it’s their best, just that it’s underrated.

I Think "Assimilation" is pretty underrated too . The fans didn´t get it back in 2000 / 2001 , but I think it's a great album , altought very experimental .

I like the S/T, Learn, and River Disturbance the most.....Weapons and What A Joke were great to play along with, though.