Various Artists - "Temporary Insanity: A Salute to Deliverance"

Various Artists - Temporary Insanity: A Salute to Deliverance

2010, Roxx Productions

Disc One:

1. Deliverance - "Flesh and Blood (25th Anniversary Recording)"

2. Deliverance - "In-U (25th Anniversary Recording)"

3. Oil - "Attack"

4. Applehead/Fasedown - "Belltown"

5. Lambs Among Wolves - "Greetings of Death"

6. Stricken - "No Time"

7. FaseUltified - "What a Joke"

8. Grave Robber - "Awake"

9. Ghostemple - "If We Faint Not"

10. Faith Factor - "Weapons of Our Warfare"

11. Whisper From Heaven - "Anymore"

12. Venia - "Desperate Cries"

13. Days of Affliction - "River Disturbance"

14. Grave Forsaken - "Bought By Blood"

15. Eternal Decision - "Belltown"

Disc Two:

1. Deliverance - "The Hunger and the Thirst"

2. Oil - "Screaming"

3. The Sacrificed - "Slay the Wicked"

4. Coriolis - "What a Joke"

5. Krig - "Weapons of Our Warfare"

6. Leper - "The Call"

7. Unforsaken - "Stay of Execution"

8. Crucible Divine - "Ramming Speed"

9. Walk on Water - "Learn"

10. Visions of Reality - "Blood of the Covenant"

11. Saint Spirit - "Prophets of Idiocy"

12. Bloodpaid - "Words to the..."

13. Bi-Polar Echo - "The Call"

14. Incarnate - "Victory"

15. Pastor Brad - "A Space Called You"

This year marks the twenty-five year anniversary of the formation of Deliverance. I can't believe it's been that long. I'm only 31 as of this writing. That means the band formed when I was six... SIX! Deliverance is one of my favorite bands of all time. I get in moods where I'm in the mood for this band or that band but Deliverance is one of the handful of bands that has always stood at the top of the heap. For whatever reason Jimmy P. Brown's songwriting just resonates with me in a way that few artists do. I have every D disc and love pretty much all of them to varying degrees.

About a year ago or so the posters from the Christian Metal Realm decided to contribute songs for a Deliverance tribute. I think it was originally supposed to be an EP. So many people responded that it became a 2-disc mega project and now we can finally reap the benefits of everyone's labor. I wasn't initially going to get this but when I looked at the track list and saw the artists involved my opinion changed. Deliverance themselves contribute three tracks along with Greg Minier (Applehead/The Crucified), Grave Robber, Josh Kramer (Saint) and Scott Waters (Ultimatum) to name just a few. Seeing some of those names... dang... the decision pretty much made itself. I love when that happens.

The question is... how is it? Honestly... pretty dang good. Well worth the fifteen bucks. No matter the recording quality of the track you can tell that everyone on here has put their heart and soul into these songs. It's truly a labor of love and that passion oozes through the speakers and is almost contagious. Instead of doing a track by track thing I'll just give you some highlights...

Disc one is the best of the two and contains the most well known talent. The D rerecordings of "Flesh and Blood" and "In-U" are awesome... especially "In-U." That's been a favorite of mine for a long time and it's great to hear it get an upgrade. It's great to see Greg Minier back in action with a great rendition of "Belltown" (which includes members of Fasedown). Hey Greg... when are we gonna see a new Applehead? Please, pretty please! Also... thank you Grave Robber for "Awake." I love you guys. Finally, I don't know who Whisper From Heaven is but their rendition of "Anymore" is stunning. They took the somber and minimalistic Camelot track (which I already liked in the first place) and turned it into something epic. Now just because I didn't mention the other tracks that doesn't mean they're bad, far from it. Probably the only track I didn't like on disc one was "River Disturbance." Mainly because the vocal performance is not really that great. It sounds like the singer is flat a lot of the time.

I don't think disc two is quite as strong but it does have some really cool moments. I've always liked "Hunger and the Thirst." Jimmy posted it on the old D website a long time and I never downloaded it so it's great to finally have it on CD. It's a little bit different in that it's along the lines of the Assimilation material or This Sad Veil of Tears. I dig the industrial covers of "What a Joke" (by Coriolis) and "The Call" (by Leper). "The Call" almost sounds like Deliverance as filtered through Devo! There are a few tracks on disc two that aren't that good - like it's Amatuer Hour at Deliverance Tavern, but the fact that I still listen to most of them is a testimony to the songwriting prowess of Jimmy and the guys. In fact throughout the course of this two-disc extravaganza you'll hear two "Belltowns," two "What a Jokes," two "The Calls," and two "Weapons of Our Warfares." I was surprised that even with the repeats I was still groovin.

If you're a long-time fan of the D - get this. Just get it. You won't be sorry. Out of the 30 tracks on here I'd say 24 of them are really good. Still well worth the money in my book.

Useless Fact: I find it odd that on a tribute called Temporary Insanity no one felt the need to cover "Temporary Insanity."