Information:
Album 2 - APOPHENIA was either loved or hated by reviewers. One of the main points of praise/criticism seems to be that every song on the album is seemingly in a different style. Sadly this wasn't a pre-planned audacious scheme to blow people's minds but according to History Of Guns just a byproduct of how the album developed. Max Rael said, "Whilst we were putting together our debut album FLASHES OF LIGHT we'd still come up with guitar songs, but we just you know, put them to one side... and then when FLASHES OF LIGHT was finished we already had a demo of this guitar-based EP we were going to polish up and release, it was going to be called Death Of A Nation EP. In a way it's a shame we weren't geared up for download only releases or anything then because the only reason it didn't happen was because we'd sunk all of our cash into FLASHES OF LIGHT and it was apparent it was going to be a while until we saw any return, and there just wasn't the money for another release for quite some time! Then Fester joined in 2004 and we started gigging and writing as a rock band, so we had more and more guitar songs and it looked like we were going to be doing a full guitar album, but then we also had these electronic songs that were piling up... which was a bit frustrating because we just wanted to get the stuff out there. At one point it looked like we might release an EP of electronic music called WAKE UP EP before album 2, but then if we'd done that would we ever have had the money for the second album? etc etc
Eventually it became clear that The Liquid Len budget at that time dictated there could only be one proper release, so armed with bits of paper, some scissors and a lot of beer, Del and I set about creating the ultimate tracklisting from all the previous planned tracklistings, and all the songs we had sitting ready to go... and that's the 'stepping stone layout'... that's the album."
selected press quotes:
"One could, conceivably, sum up this album as "techno beats, dubs, synths, and samples for the thinking man." On History of Guns' second album, Apophenia, Max Rael, Del Gun, and Fester Schuster (along with a myriad cast of guest musicians) de-construct and re-construct traditional implements of industrial, tribal and more. This elevates the overall effect to a much more intelligently designed collection of cuts than some of their experimental contemporaries." - Gothic Beauty
"The truth is, History of Guns has a far superior production sound than almost any self-produced industrial goth rock band out there. They don't really match up with those bands though as they even manage to avoid categorization in that side of the electronic field. They stand on their own for the most part, a genre to themselves. Or rather they perhaps are a combination of every genre you could think of involving electronic music... Certainly inventive, but more profound in their ability to mix and match genres effortlessly. It doesn't seem like they're trying, or having to force any music out of their systems. It all flows incredibly well." - Heathen Harvest
"There is no-one in the UK capable of unleashing a high pedigree sonic firestorm like the HOG boys, although their worrying mental disturbance does indicate that they have been taken to locations they can no longer remember, recorded under duress, and there is clear evidence Del has been tortured. (Good.)
That said, will History Of Guns always be placing themselves outside of sense? There are several styles going on once again, but before these were linked by the strength of the textures in the music and its enveloping atmosphere. Here everything is pretty much stripped back, leaving us with a precarious stepping stone arrangement. Hop from Indie to Punk, into beat mashups, and on to ambient nightmare" - Mick Mercer
Notes:
- Some of the cut songs appeared on the free promotional album Apospemia - A Collection Of B-Sides.
- The track, Nothing, eventually appeared as a Max Rael solo track on the EP - This Is Raelism.
- 'Jumping Under Cars' became 'Keep The Good Stuff Running' which appeared on Electricity Is The Answer
- A brief snippet of the main riff of MEAT survived onto the released version of Apophenia. It's right at the beginning of the album before Death Of A Nation starts.
- Powder and Slave have both been mentioned for possible inclusion on History Of Guns 4th album - Whatever You Do, Don't Turn Up At Twelve.
What's that? You want even more info?! For details of how the tracklist evolved click: here