Released July 27, 2010
Written, produced and performed by Jay Gironimi
Liner Notes
This is a secret All Hallow’s Evil album in that it’s not an All Hallow’s Evil album.
My circumstances had improved somewhat since the release of And Then the Night Forgot Us… to the point where I was able to afford a MacBook. I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s worth noting that I almost teared up when I heard how easy it was to create decent sounding albums with little outboard equipment and software that came preloaded on the computer.
I originally recorded this in GarageBand, with the theory that I had spent so much on the computer that I couldn’t afford to spend anything else on software, but when it came time to mix, I missed automation, so the credit card came back out and I bought Logic Pro X. Still using it today, so it’s actually one of my better purchases.
Anyway, about the band name. I’ve been trying to change the name All Hallow’s Evil since the days of Cold Taste…, so for once I took the chance. A cursory search didn’t turn up any other Slowbleeds when I was making the album cover, but another one showed up right around the time of the actual release. Seems like they were pretty active prior to that, so if anyone from this other Slowbleed is reading this, sorry about the confusion.
My concept for this “band” was that everyone would be invisible. You can see that in the promo image and the video I made for “Monocane”. I was going to do a full performance video for this called “Slowbleed Live in the Basement”, but I couldn’t find a method of shooting it that would be interesting without eating up an absurd amount of my time. Given the way technology has moved, I could probably pull it off today, but this Slowbleed is already buried in the backyard.
This is a secret All Hallow’s Evil album in that it’s not an All Hallow’s Evil album.
My circumstances had improved somewhat since the release of And Then the Night Forgot Us… to the point where I was able to afford a MacBook. I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s worth noting that I almost teared up when I heard how easy it was to create decent sounding albums with little outboard equipment and software that came preloaded on the computer.
I originally recorded this in GarageBand, with the theory that I had spent so much on the computer that I couldn’t afford to spend anything else on software, but when it came time to mix, I missed automation, so the credit card came back out and I bought Logic Pro X. Still using it today, so it’s actually one of my better purchases.
Anyway, about the band name. I’ve been trying to change the name All Hallow’s Evil since the days of Cold Taste…, so for once I took the chance. A cursory search didn’t turn up any other Slowbleeds when I was making the album cover, but another one showed up right around the time of the actual release. Seems like they were pretty active prior to that, so if anyone from this other Slowbleed is reading this, sorry about the confusion.
My concept for this “band” was that everyone would be invisible. You can see that in the promo image and the video I made for “Monocane”. I was going to do a full performance video for this called “Slowbleed Live in the Basement”, but I couldn’t find a method of shooting it that would be interesting without eating up an absurd amount of my time. Given the way technology has moved, I could probably pull it off today, but this Slowbleed is already buried in the backyard.
-Jay G, March 2024
Track by Track
“Monocane” – This is named after the drug in James Whale’s 1933 adaptation of The Invisible Man, though I may or may not have left an “i” out of it. I can’t remember if that was intentional.
True to the title, it’s a song about the invisible man. I love the Universal Monster films—I have a Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster tattoo on my arm—and I’ve always followed the cliche of identifying with the monsters. However, as I grow older, I realize there’s more mad scientist in me than is probably healthy. As such, the lyrics to this one came pretty easy.
It’s probably the best song on the album, so I made a video for it where I try to pay tribute to the John Fulton effects of the original film. I suppose my tribute comes by virtue of proving how hard it is to do the effects right, even with 80+ years of technological lead on the original. With a little planning, I probably could have come a little closer to success, but I gave myself one take. I had my wife paint my face blue so I could chroma key it out and then add peach colored makeup on top, but I didn’t have enough blue paint, so there was a lot of manual keying. Solid concept, mediocre execution.
“Nothing I Can Do” – This one is about the thing that has powered me through so, so much: spite.
My logline for this album was that it was “Planted somewhere on the shared musical ground between Failure and W.A.S.P.” which is funny because that is some barren land when it comes to listeners. But I’ll be goddamned if it doesn’t still sound true to me.
“You Will Be Forgotten” – This song is the result of me trying to find a home for the melody in the bridge. I wrote a lot of great riffs for this, but couldn’t find a way to combine them in a way that didn’t sound like wilted riff salad, so this turned out completely different to what I was going for, but it’s still pretty good. I also learned that it’s slightly harder to play the tambourine than I expected.
“Quit” – I wrote this on my acoustic using extended chord voicings then broke it up into individual melody lines and chords. I remember feeling that it sounded too “European” at the time, but I think that’s just because the original intro was really close to a Tiamat rip off.
“Too Late” – I wanted to write a real downer about dying, kind of like “Hallowed Be Thy Name” without the execution angle. The quiet part after the first verse is actually the hardest thing to play on the album, because it was difficult to find the right intensity for it. I think it all works pretty well here.
“We’re All Gonna Die” – This was not a unique thought in the year 2016, but I found it helpful to write it down. One of the more 80s style songs I’ve ever written.
“All is Lost” – I wrote this about taking someone to an overwhelmed emergency room. It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as listening to this song might make you think, but it was just one of those moments where the superfluous worries and frictions just kind of disappear. I was always really proud of this, both lyrically and melodically. I did a “spacey” solo guitar/bass medley of this and “Noir” (off of And Then the Night Forgot Us…) that I never official released because I never had the right place for it, but I imagine it will find it’s way to this site someday.
“Patterns in the Pieces” – One of our funnier human instincts is the one that whispers “maybe this all happened for a reason” when everything has gone to absolute shit. I think everyone does it at some point as it’s the only way our brains can handle our true insignificance without just absolutely melting. Anyway, this song is about how dangerous it is to pretend everything happens for a reason.
“Where Have You Been?” – You could look at this as being about a relationship—technically it is—but I was definitely writing about trying to give up music. I wonder if my life would be easier if I could just let it go; I’d certainly have more money. But honestly I missed the little pieces of melodies that float into my head, even if they’re never going to set the world on fire. I was glad to have them back.
“End Theme or ‘I Love You. Please Kill Me’” – If this song had taken off, I would have followed up with a full synth wave album, but the people spoke and they said “no.”
The morse code at the end says “I love you. Please kill me”. At least that’s what the internet told me at the time.
The Official All Hallow's Evil Archive 