History Of Guns

England's Finest Metamodernist Industrial Band

Characterised by a genre-blurring variety of styles and approaches viewed through their singularly unique industrial lens, navigating the tension between existential confrontation and an enduring core of hope.

Core Releases

Half Light 2024
Liquid Len Recording Company

Coming full circle, released on the summer solstice, June 20, 2024, a thematic and sonic sequel to their 2004 debut album, Flashes of Light.

"...a collection of songs that sit on the interface between dance and darkwave, clinical gothic vibes and futuristic electronica, between the past and the future, the what was and the what might yet be... ...it is an album full of digital tones and analogue textures, smooth ambient electro-scapes, and clubland grooves." — The Big Takeover
Forever Dying In Your Eyes 2022
Liquid Len Recording Company

The return after a decade hiatus. Polished, dramatic production exploring existential confrontation, recovery, and persistence.

Album 4 2012
Independent

A polarizing document of disintegration; raw, abrasive, and honest.

ACEDIA 2008
Line Out Records

Mid-tempo industrial malaise and existential dread. Mark of the label transition.

"A brooding masterpiece of mid-tempo industrial malaise... captures a specific kind of English existential dread." — Terrorizer
Apophenia 2006
Independent / Line Out Records

Genre fragmentation featuring the defining anthem "Your Obedient Servants".

Flashes of Light 2004
The Liquid Lens Recording Company

The noir-industrial debut LP defining the early UK Wasp Factory and FuturePunk era.

The Dossier & World-Building

Origins & Metamodern Evolution

History Of Guns emerged in Hertfordshire in 1996 when Max Rael and Del Alien began improvising late-night studio sessions in the dark. Becoming frontrunners of the UK Wasp Factory and FuturePunk underground throughout the 2000s, the project has spanned formats from raw duo electronica to a full 5-piece rock ensemble.

"By far, the most inventive UK band to have got their hands caught in the industrial threshing machine." — Mick Mercer
"Exude a strong whiff of authenticity – a glowering psychosis that no amount of Hot Topic eyeshadow can imitate." — Rock-Metal-Music Reviews

The Half Light Lore: Starship Pickton Lock

The conceptual narrative of Half Light (2024) revolves around the starship Pickton Lock, orbiting a dead planet every 23 hours—trapped in a liminal transit between unbearable searing light and absolute freezing dark. Mirroring the somatic cycles of trauma and societal paralysis, the story frames time as stuck in an endless loop, where escape toward Arcadia requires quantum fractal jumps in odd time signatures.

The Lore of Drug Castle

An insinuated reality explored across flash fiction, prose, and experimental short films directed by Howard Gardner. Drug Castle is an old coastal psychiatric facility where bureaucratic and medical authorities explore the grotesque boundaries of human survival through unreliable narrators, surreal transformations, and clinical control.

Media & Video Artifacts

Interview: Charting the Higher Octave with DJ Nocturna 2024

Del Alien and Max Rael explore the philosophical mechanics of metamodernism, the creation of secondary worlds, and the balance between concept and vocal performance.

Watch on YouTube ↗

External Archives & Primary Sources