Deliverance formed in the 1985 as a speed metal outfit, where the Christian metal community first encountered them on the compilation album "California Metal". They published their self-titled debut album Deliverance in 1989 with Jimmy P Brown (guitars and lead vocals), Glenn Rogers (lead guitar), Brian Khairullah (bass), and Chris Hyde (drums), but did not make major waves in the Christian metal community until their 1990 release "Weapons of Our Warfare". During this time, the band replaced guitarist Glenn Rogers with George Ochoa, and released a video on MTV for the title track of "Weapons".

During the production of their third album, Brian Khairullah and Chris Hyde were replaced with Mike Grato and Kevin Lee respectively. The third album did not perform as well, and tensions within the band resulted in George Ochoa leaving.

Their fourth album was a major change in direction for the band musically. "Stay of Execution" went in a more progressive metal direction, complete with new guitarist Mike Phillips. While this move did anger fans at the time, others feel that "Stay" represents Deliverance's best work. Their fifth album "Learn" continued in a progressive direction with new bassist Manny Morales. From this time on, the other positions in the band changed with increasing frequency, but the core of the band remained Jimmy Brown and Manny Morales.

Deliverance released "River Disturbance" in 1994 and "Camelot in Smithereens" in 1995. Originally intended to be a single album, conflicts with their record companies resulted in these albums being released separately, with "Camelot" being the poorest seller in the Deliverance catalog at the time.

Deliverance disappeared until 2001, when they released their final studio album, "Assimilation", which was not well received by fans due to its major changes from the classic Deliverance style.