Released September 4, 2020
Written, produced and performed by Jay Gironimi
Liner Notes
With some downtime in the godless year of 2020, I thought it might be fun to dig out the old Faust multitracks and see if I could polish them up a bit.
The actual impetus for this was that while my workplace was shutdown, I was going to start live-streaming little concerts that no one would really watch, but would keep my occupied. Luckily or unluckily, work opened back up and I never had time to get that going.
But I did have time to dig through the old tracks. This was the album where I finally figured out how midi worked, so I had a lot of performance data that was feeding software instruments I hadn’t used in at least a decade, so while the performances are all the same, the samples for the drums and keys are all different. I did some eq on the guitars and added some cabinet simulators as well, but that’s all fiddly nerd stuff. The bottom line on this is that it sounds “better” than the original, but I probably like the original a little more anyway. However, if you’ve never heard either, you should probably start here.
Since this is such a massive overhaul, I made a new cover too, just to make it easy to identify at a glance. It’s based on a picture of a feather that was used in the original booklet, but I did a more impressionistic (digital) painting of it with the help of my wife. Yeah, I spent a decent amount of money on the Apple Pencil, but I made at least 3 pictures with it!
Also, if you buy it on Bandcamp there’s a pretty good commentary track.
-Jay G, March 2024
The Original Ad Copy
This Faustian Flesh is the best All Hallow’s Evil album.
And I’m reasonably sure that’s not just nostalgia speaking, because my life sucked back when I was making this.
This Faustian Flesh came out in 2006, the 9th release in the All Hallow’s Evil oeuvre, preceded by 4 full lengths and 4 EPs. The early All Hallow’s Evil albums are angry and mean in a way that’s sometimes interesting and sometimes cringe inducing, but they feel to me today almost like they were made by a different person. This is the first All Hallow’s Evil album that feels like it was made by some version of the person I am today. A version who had little to no idea how to work any of the musical equipment he’d cobbled together.
While I think This Faustian Flesh is the best All Hallow’s Evil album, but I’ve come to understand how the original sound can be off-putting–buzzsaw guitars aren’t for everyone. So since I found myself with some extra downtime this year, I thought I’d crawl through some old hard drives and give Faust some 2020 hindsight.
All the performances here are as they were before, though some of the midi tracks are triggering new samples, some of the guitars are re-amped, and I actually know how to use a compressor now. Everything here has been meticulously remixed/remastered to land a little easier on modern ears, while still maintaining some of the rough edges that I think made the original work so well.
But even if you’re not interested in a newly cleaned and restored version of the best song I’ve ever written (“Completely Fucking Lost”), perhaps I can interest you in a commentary track where I discuss how I brought an audience member to the verge of angry tears at one of the few All Hallow’s Evil live shows. Or maybe you’d like to hear more about how Bugs Bunny is my fashion icon? Well, if you hit that BUY button, that commentary track will be yours! And what the hell, I’ll throw some guitar tabs (pdf AND Guitar Pro 7) in too.
I think of This Faustian Flesh as both the final statement in what All Hallow’s Evil was and the beginning of what All Hallow’s Evil would become. Honestly, I could have changed this name of the band with this album or after this album, but it’s real hard to come up with band names. Plus, all my favorite bands kept their name when they changed sounds—Paradise Lost, Ulver, Tiamat, etc—so why shouldn’t I? What is no budget bedroom producing if not some elaborate form of musical LARPing?
Much as I imagine it’s fun to pretend you’re a wizard or whatever goes on in LARPing—I’m an indoor cat, so none of that for me, thank you—it’s been a lot of fun making a deluxe reissue of an album that sold like 25 copies when it was first released. Here’s hoping I eventually get to do the Live Faust 4D experience.
Jay G, September 2020
The Official All Hallow's Evil Archive 