History of Guns - When You Don't Matter
Underground 90s industrial legends History Of Guns presents their new single 'When You Don't Matter'. This is the second taster of their 'Half Light' album, following the lead track 'No Longer Earthbound', where the band takes a typically unflinching look at abandonment.
Their eighth record to date, it will be released via the Liquid Len Recording Company. Serving up their unique meta-modernist Industrial sound,
On hiatus from 2012 to 2022, they returned with the album 'Forever Dying In Your Eyes' and then set about finishing an electronic project they’d begun in 2008. The result is this 'Half Light' album, produced by Max Rael, mixed by Max Rael and Caden Clarkson, and mastered by Pete Maher (U2, Pixies, Nick Cave, 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”.
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. Exploring the human condition through various musical genres
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.
“I think most people know of either a moment, or something sadly longer, when you're on your own, and no one knows where you are, how you are, or even if you're alive or dead. I think this like a History Of Guns version of a ballad, for abandonment. But whenever we have something we think is beautiful, we always have to smash it up somehow. From an existential point of view it might be true, maybe we don’t matter. We are meaning-seeking creatures in a world with no objective meaning. Ultimately we have to find a way to make ourselves matter to ourselves,” says multi-instrumentalist Max Rael.
Del Alien adds, "It's like the vain attempt to help people. Maybe they know it, maybe they don't. It's not a personal thing is it? Is this what society has done to us? Is it worth you thinking about? Getting cold in a box just to be burned and scattered to the wind, only to end up in the mouth of a dying junkie… or like sleeping with the sanest lunatic you ever met, but there’s no one there in the morning to make you breakfast. If the product is not good from the start, how can it be in the end? Losing the place you stand, just to hold another’s hand.”
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.
As of May 20, 'When You Don't Matter' is available from fine music platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp, where the 'Half Light' album (out June 20) can be pre-ordered..
