Giles Corey – S/T MC

“Some time in the Spring of 2009, I tried to kill myself. Six months before that, I used a Voor’s Head Device for the first time." This line opens the 150-page book that accompanies Giles Corey, an intensely personal, intimate portrait of depression that took me almost four years to make. —Dan Barrett

Giles Corey's haunting self-titled debut is finally available on CD again! The Flenser is pleased to offer a new version of this cult favorite packaged in a standard jewel case inside of a printed slipcase. The 150-page book that accompanies the vinyl edition can be purchased separately or as a bundle with the CD. As previously mentioned, the book and CD bundle offered here is two separate items which do not come packaged together in box set.

Giles Corey is the gloomy folk-driven solo project from Have A Nice Life mastermind Dan Barrett. Here, Barrett forgoes the post-industrial trappings of Have A Nice Life in favor of an intimate singer-songwriter approach. While thematically related to his other work--dealing with subjects like suicide, death and the paranormal--Giles Corey feels more personal, with impressive shifts from quiet desperation to cathartic outburst. Over the years the album has gained a fervent following, and has sometimes been compared to a religious experience. It is a dark yet purgative enterprise not for the frail of heart.

The book is an integral part of Giles Corey. Its examination of the life and times of cult leader Robert Voor runs parallel to the lyrics, and offers further immersion for the reflective listener. In Barrett’s own words: “The album follows a story arc of emotions that are detailed in the accompanying book, as much a part of this record as the music. The text switches between personal tales of struggles with depression, suicide, and a feeling of being lost, and the story of cult-leader and afterlife theorist Robert Voor. Voor’s writings on death and the afterlife feature prominently across Have A Nice Life’s Deathconsciousness, Nahvalr’s self-titled debut, and Giles Corey, making him the unifying factor behind most of the music I’ve written in the last ten years. This record is as personal and raw as anything I’ve ever done.”

1. The Haunting Presence 
2. Blackest Bile 
3. Grave Filled With Books 
4. Empty Churches 
5. I’m Going To Do It 
6. Spectral Bride 
7. No One Is Ever Going To Want Me 
8. Sleeping Heart 
9. Buried Above Ground