Released March 23, 2011
Written, produced and performed by Jay Gironimi
Liner Notes
I listened to a lot of KISS growing up and one thing Paul Stanley always used to say was “People! Let me tell you something”. But he also had a line about how if your song doesn’t work on an acoustic guitar, it’s not actually a song. I took that and many, many listens to the Alice in Chains Unplugged album put me here, with a collection of acoustic versions of All Hallow’s Evil “hits”.
This collection was recorded over various years, with the opening Faust suite being the newest and best, even if I cheated and used an electric piano on it. Back when All Hallow’s Evil was a live entity, we were always proud of the fact that we could show up dressed like zombies with a drum machine or dressed like broke college students with acoustic guitars. In both cases, we were usually asked to leave.
Actually, people at the community college open mic we forcibly took over were either very receptive to these or nice enough to pretend real hard. Back in the Myspace days, I made a whole new account dedicated just to these, with the idea that I’d eventually make an album of acoustic originals. Still might get around to that someday.
-Jay G, Feb 2024
Track by Track
“Faustian Suite I, II, III” – I had planned on recording an entirely acoustic version of This Faustian Flesh. Since I originally wrote it on acoustic guitar, I thought it would be easy enough to break it back down. Turns out there’s a difference between an acoustic version and a good acoustic version.
To spice things up, I wanted to use some keyboard sounds, but I play keyboard like my hands are taped and fully programming the sounds didn’t seem quite right, so these are played on a Mad Catz Rock Band Pro Midi Guitar. I had to filter out some ghost notes, but it sounds better than if I clicked the notes in. “Veneer” is my favorite part of this and probably the actual reason there’s piano on any of this, because I thought it was a fun swerve to change lead instruments.
“Under Dead Stars” – This one was mostly written on acoustic guitar as well, so it was an easy translation. It took a lot of takes to get a vocal performance I wasn’t embarrassed to post, though it’s still a little rough by the end. You can hear my voice has a some wear on it when the last chorus hits.
“Myopic” – I wanted to keep this one true to what I could conceivably pull off live, so since I couldn’t throat sing or grow another head, there aren’t any vocal harmonies on this. I keep wavering the vocal melody towards one of the harmony parts in the chorus, but I left it because I cut this shit live, baby. Also, pitch correction just crashed my computer back then.
“The Cold Taste of Nickel Plated Steel” – I have to give a shout out to the man Bentley for letting me know that my original pre-chorus for this wasn’t what it should be, so that’s how I got to the more chordal version here. I kind of wish I’d put a little bit of the same energy towards the solo section here, but honestly I did not expect to have to listen to this a decade later.
“Give Guns to Children” – This is the song that originally gave me the idea to do acoustic versions. I had the idea for the kind of nervous arrangement heard here. I may actually like this better than the original. Even the solo works pretty well here.
As with anytime I mention this song, I feel the need to state I do not actually think we should give children guns.
“Memory” – Given an opportunity where I could have easily chopped a minute out of this bad boy, I somehow made the acoustic version 3 seconds longer than the original. I think there are some neat touches in here though, like the harmonics over the main riff and the high part over the verse. You can tell this is towards the end of a long vocal session, which actually improved things because it forced me to fluctuate the intensity.
“The Acoustic Zombie” – I stole the idea to countrify “Transgression Resurrection” from the way KISS used to play “God of Thunder” on their convention tour. The rest of it is pretty straight, to the point where I used this as the scratch track when I did the electric re-recording in 2009.
At the end of “Sweet Sanctuary of Mortality” I start weaving between growling and singing because I used to start randomly switching between the two voices if I thought we were losing the crowd. And I’m always surprised when I keep the “Hello operator…” part because it was a one off joke that was a little sweaty when we recorded the original, but I’ve always been one to dig my heels in.
“At a Loss” – The intervening years have given me new perspective on these works, allowing me to see the early albums as a form of outsider art or to see this song as a form of LARPing. I remember deciding to record this and thinking, “I’ll do an acoustic version of a deep cut, that will surprise people”. Of fucking course it will, because maybe 10 people even knew the original existed and only half of those people actually heard it. Maybe there’s a world where the existence of this matters, but it ain’t this one.
I think the song is fine though.
“Self Made Martyr” – I’ve recorded at least 4 versions of this, 2 of which are in the official discography (including this one). Part of that is that the main riff is fun to play and part of that is because I never felt like I got it right. I suppose this is the best version by default, but I’m not quite sure the song itself fully works. I really like the octave doubling on this though and the last little melody bit.
The Official All Hallow's Evil Archive 