history of guns

Metamodernist industrial music from a parallel universe 

Current lineup:

Del Alien – lead voice
Max Rael – machines, keys, voices, guitars
Caden Clarkson – guitars

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

 

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.