Hertfordshire-based industrial-postpunk legends History Of Guns. who were frontrunners of the UK’s Wasp Factory / FuturePunk scene of the early 2000s, present ‘What’s Buried (Will Rise)’ from their newly-released eighth album ‘Half Light’.
On this album, founding members Del Alien (vocals) and Max Rael (keyboards, programming) are joined by guitarist Caden Clarkson (the newest member of History Of Guns) in exploring the human condition through various musical genres. Produced Max Rael, ‘Half Light’ was mixed by Max Rael and Caden Clarkson, and mastered by **Pete Maher **(U2, Pixies, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode, NIN).
Still crafting their unique meta-modernist Industrial sound 28 years since forming in Cheshunt, the new album (released via the Liquid Len Recording Company) was previewed by the singles ‘No Longer Earthbound’ and ‘When You Don’t Matter’. The new single explores the psychological repression experienced by non-conformists and the systematic amnesia that emerges from that, where only specific memories or groups of ideas are withdrawn from recollection.
“How well do we really know ourselves? The “introspection illusion” suggests that the way we view ourselves is probably inherently distorted. In terms of the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious, how much of how we think and behave is driven by each aspect? Freud & Jung’s theories of repression say that the more you try to bury something that happened, or some aspect of your self the more it will come back in some form or other as “the return of the repressed’,” says Max Rael.
“As for the video, I’ve always been obsessed with that kind of high contrast black white look ever since I fell in love with Orson Welles. I was watching the recent adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Talented Mr Ripley books on Netflix, and there’s an episode where Tom and Dicky are out in this little two-man boat. Because the songs on ‘Half Light’ are aligned to the Greek Elements, I thought it’d be great to have this video in black and white, with shots of submerged objects floating to the surface. We had some help from ace director and VFX supremo Howard Gardner. I think the end result is intriguing, and a bit wrong, but hopefully wrong in a good way!”
The roots of ‘Half Light’ trace back to electronic tunes they had begun in 2008, surrounding the unpredictability of the future and elements of the novel that Max Rael is currently writing, exploring both inner and outer space. An album in three acts, the first four tracks make up Act One (opening a door), then ‘Flashes of Light Pt. 5’ walks through that door. Act Two closes with the album’s most joyous point – ‘Arcadia’, with four tracks in the final act.
History Of Guns aims to create a strange alternative world where people can feel safe. This doesn’t mean the album is all joy. It has a lot of darkness in it, like life itself. History Of Guns embrace the dark as well as the light, bleakness and hope, as openly and unironically honestly as possible. Here you’ll find songs about mental health, society, addiction, abandonment, different levels of reality and the struggle to keep going. Yet through this darkness, there remains underneath, a core of hope.
Del Alien – an original punk turned goth – is an anti-authority seeker of truth and the questions behind the questions. Max Rael is in love with the idea of using music to create a separate universe for creating stories and escaping into, was an autistic, music-obsessed child, absorbing a dozen genres before diving into trance after Britpop ruined the alternative scene.
History of Guns’ 2004 single ‘Your Obedient Servant’ was championed by The Quietus and Mick Mercer among the “30 best goth singles of all time”. Taking hiatus in 2012, they released the album ‘Forever Dying In Your Eyes’ in 2022. Influenced by Killing Joke, PWEI, Bauhaus, Coil, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, Nine Inch Nails and Swans, History of Guns have played Whitby Gothic Weekend, as well as Futurepunk and Back to the Futurepunk events.
The ‘Half Light’ album is out now, available from fine music platforms, such as Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp.
-Official bio
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