History of Guns - No Longer Earthbound
UK electro-goth post-punk band History Of Guns presents 'No Longer Earthbound', previewing their new 'Half Light' album - their eighth record to date - to be released via the Liquid Len Recording Company. Serving up their unique meta-modernist Industrial sound, this song is about leaving the planet (through space travel, virtual reality or death) and about recalibrating our thoughts away from our own problems and looking at a more global and cosmic picture.
After going on hiatus in 2012, they returned in 2022 with a new album - 'Forever Dying In Your Eyes' - then set about finishing an electronic project they’d begun in 2008. The result is this 'Half Light' album, produced by Max Rael and mixed by Max Rael and Caden Clarkson with mastering by Pete Maher (U2, Pixies, Nick Cave, J&MC, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails).
Formed in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire in 1996, History of Guns became frontrunners of the UK's Wasp Factory / FuturePunk scene of the early 2000s and their 2004 single 'Your Obedient Servant' was ultimately championed by The Quietus and Mick Mercer as one of the “thirty best goth singles of all time”.
At times anything from a duo to a full 5-piece rock band, 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. The band's ever-changing lineup revolves around the two core members, exploring the human condition through various musical genres.
Max Rael says, "This is a song about shifting focus away from this planet and to other places or realities.The existentialist question about why worry about saving the planet and endangered species when ultimately life will be unlivable on Earth in 1.3 billion years? If everything ends anyway, where else could we go? We pictured escaping the planet either through space travel, virtual reality or death. It is also about what we choose to leave behind as we shed one existence and go looking for another. That’s not to say History Of Guns don’t care about the planet. We recycle! Though apparently most of it ends up in landfill anyway."
Influenced by Killing Joke, PWEI, Bauhaus, Coil, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy and Nine Inch Nails and Swans, History of Guns was a big part of the UK underground industrial scene of the 00s, playing Whitby Gothic Weekend, as well as Futurepunk and Back to the Futurepunk events.
“Philosopher Dirk Bruere got me interested about the idea of quantum suicide and immortality, where in a “many worlds” interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, it may be that there is no such thing as death from a subjective point of view. It’s about getting out of our heads, and taking a wider view, to the extent of how much do we choose and shape the reality we’re experiencing," says Max Rael.
"The death of the idea of one objective reality, and the embrace of many different co-existing realities would be a major step forward. Ironically the more aware we are of our own confirmation bias the harder it becomes to see. And also the sense that we have to kill the person society wants to shape us to be, to realise the potential of what we can make of ourselves.”
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.
As of April 22, 'No Longer Earthbound' will be available from fine music platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music. The 'Half Light' album will released on June 20.
