history of guns

Metamodernist industrial music from a parallel universe 

Current lineup:

Del Alien – lead voice
Caden Clarkson – guitars
Max Rael – programming, keys, other voices & guitars

with:
Jamu Knight – guitars
Gary Hughes – drums
Ámon Ássentir – bass
Chris White – bass

 

biog:

History Of Guns started as a band on Earth in Cheshunt in Local Universe Consensus Time (LUCT) year 1996.

Their name comes from the title of one of their earliest songs, written looking back from a future where guns no longer exist to the Dunlane massacre in (LUCT) 1996 in Scotland, the first, and to-date, most deadly, mass school shooting in the UK. It looks forwards to the day when guns are consigned to the history books and attacks of this kind never happen again. 

Their manifesto was to create a place for free spirits to take refuge until the revolution came. A safe space from where to take an unflinching, unironic, sometimes brutal look both inwardly and outwardly: intra (inside their own minds and consciousness), inter (relationships between people), extra (society, the world in general) and extraextra (cosmic and other dimensions) or just simply float away on an adventure.

Always revolving around the creative partnership of Del Alien and Max Rael the band have explored many genres through their own unique industrial lens with a revolving cast of supporting collaborators and band members.

After performing live occasionally since going on hiatus in 2011, History Of Guns returned with a new industrial rock/metal album, Forever Dying in Your Eyes in 2022 with new guitarist Jamu Knight.

However, it is apparent that guns, weapons, torture, slavery and war have not been consigned to the history books and humankind looks as bad as it ever did. So, coming up for thirty years since they formed, what do History Of Guns have to offer now in 2024?

The revolution now seems further away than ever, and History Of Guns feel the weight of time, of age, of keeping going at all costs. The worlds they create in their albums will last for as long as they are listened to, and will continue to serve as a refuge and welcoming place for the desperate, the depressed, the ones that don’t fit in, the ones who just need a break from it all, anyone who just needs someplace to escape for a while. 

Their sixth official album, ‘Half Light: The Journey to Arcadia’, originally planned as the follow-up to ‘Acedia’, was started and put on hold way back in 2008 and was finally released on the summer solstice (June 20th) 2024.

~

And if you’re ever worried about Del Alien and Max Rael, and how they’re doing, don’t worry, they’re both doing much better these days. And even when they’re not, you can always find them in the music.

Selected discography (the main albums)

  • Flashes of Light LP (2004)
  • Apophenia (2006)
  • Acedia (2008)
  • Album Four: Whatever You Do, Don’t Turn Up at Twelve (2011)
  • Forever Dying in Your Eyes (2022)
  • Half Light – The Journey to Arcadia (2024)

History Of Guns back catalogue is available for free download (as long as BandCamp continues to be a thing) from: https://historyofguns.bandcamp.com/

A few CDs are still available, contact us for details of what stock we can currently find, or check Amazon, eBay or Discogs for second hand.

 

History Of Guns are in the process of getting together a full 5-piece rock band for their next planned album, ‘Rage & Reflect’.

Future live dates are currently a possibility.

INfluences / Beliefs

Influences:

Killing Joke, Peter Cook, Alexei Sayle, PWEI, Bauhaus, Quantum Theory, Joy Division, Rik Mayall, Metamodernism SWANS, Gary Numan, Marillion, Mudhoney, Chris Morris, Faith No More, Sex Pistols, David Lynch, The Smiths, CRASS, Carter USM, Philip K Dick, Fish out of Marillion, The Cure, The Doors, Star Trek, Ari Aster, Stewart Lee (not Del), New Order, Nirvana, Chris TT, Jonathan Pie, Fry & Laurie, PiL, Genesis, Nine Inch Nails, Black Mirror, Cruxshadows…

Fundamental Beliefs:

Del believes in fundamental objective truth.

Max doesn’t and thinks the word “truth” should always be in inverted commas as it’s inevitably infected by the observer.

e.g.

Del: Look up the Tartarians ffs it was not that long ago .. ask why that history is scrubbed yet you can still find them if you bother to look.. free energy

Max: Yes looked it up. Interesting possibilities. A bit like Nikola Tesla

Del: It was…its amazing how history can be wiped out

Max: All history is fiction. Written by the winners. The losers are always deleted. Same as it ever was.

Del: Very true

Max: Nothing is ever true. 😉

Del: Apart from the truth 😱💪👊😎

Max: That’s the big difference between you and me. You believe in “truth”, and I don’t.

Del: No shock there !

Max: And neither of us will ever persuade the other that we are “right”. Still it’s good to have two different perspectives in the band as long as we don’t fight about it too much

Del: Damn right my man just another reason we get on.

[followed by an immediate intense argument about the infamous ‘Blue Box’ scene from David Lynch’s 2001 film ‘Mulholland Drive’ which Del’s seeming ignorance, stupidity and mindless projection of conspiracy theory (or was it a deliberate act of cognitive sabotage) caused Max to put Del on mute for a week under the grounds that he feels that sometimes, the more intelligent a person can be, the more blind it can make them to their cognitive biases, basic empathy and understanding of others.]