Vinyl Vault Entry #15: Clevo Style Hardcore on The Guns' Self-Titled Discography

'80s Cleveland hardcore band The Guns never got their due respect until a recent compilation release on Smog Veil Records. This discography, however, serves a purpose beyond a mere document of preservation. "It's a definitive record of what laid the groundwork for what became the Clevo hardcore, punk and metal scenes that showed me how I could take control of my own life." In this Vinyl Vault, A. Iwasa talks The Guns, Cleveland's hardcore scene and more.

Album:  The Guns (2012)
Artist:  The Guns
Label:  Smog Veil Records, 2017 reprint with Red Hour Records
Genre(s):  Hardcore punk
Favorite song:  “Support”
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Why did you choose this record?
 
For years, The Guns were the only first-wave, US American hardcore band I knew of from Cleveland, Ohio.  When I saw the film American Hardcore, I had been disappointed that there were no bands from Clevo in it.  But later I read the first edition of the book by Steven Blush, and was appalled when he wrote there was no Cleveland hardcore.  I assume this was slight against the world famous metalcore acts from town, a few of which I was fanatically into when I lived in a west suburb of Clevo in the 1990s when I was in junior and senior high school.  I’ve actually reached out to Blush about this when I was writing the zine Clevo Style with Joe Biel, but he wouldn’t reply.
 
Anyways, The Guns preceded all the local hardcore bands I listened to in the ‘90s, and were influential to a number of them.   
 
Give us some background on this record. What does the album sound like?  
 
It’s a 1982-’86 discography, and the sound quality of the material varies pretty widely from good studio to some stuff that sounds like it was recorded on a boombox.  Similarly, the progression of the music from hardcore punk to crossover metal is chronicled.  Musically, specifically, I think it’s jaw droppingly good, on par with anything from hardcore punk’s first wave and the beginning of crossover into metalcore.  I’m not just writing that because they were from Clevo, I think they are on par with the best of there era’s hardcore bands.  The music speaks for itself when push comes to shove. The cover art is also top notch.
 
RIYL (Recommend If You Like):  

Slapshot, Cro-Mags, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Ringworm, The Misfits, Face Value.
 
What is the significant history of this album?  
 
I don’t believe The Guns ever played outside of Ohio, so apparently they never really got a lot of the attention their peers who were in the regional, national or even international tour circuits got. The band’s ex-members went on to be in other prominent bands such as Integrity and Pentagram (yes, an odd backtrack from first wave hardcore to protometal!). The Guns helped forge and influence the Clevo hardcore and metal scenes that have gotten their due while The Guns haven’t. 
 
Tell us about the album art featured on this record.  
 
The cover art is epic. Gun toting, helmeted skeletons (that seem to be on a lot of their flyers) but also with a more dystopian, nightmarish head exploding-brains-oozing-person under a starry sky and an arch of demonesque looking heads.  It’s arguably typical of the period, but also the sort of art that attracted me to the full rock aesthetic of the 1980s when I saw it around suburban Chicago and Clevo.  It’s a gatefold, double LP and the inside is an essay by one of the band members brother who is also a veteren of first wave hardcore punk, Tom Dark. Interspersed with the essay is a collage of show flyers, but it sort of drives me nuts!  I’d prefer to see them laid out like a grid because I want to see every band and club name, and the addresses of the venues I’m unfamiliar with.
 
What is the packaging like for this release? Are there any inserts or gatefold images? 
 
In addition to what I already mentioned, there is an essay by ex-member, Sean Saley printed on an 8.5x11” piece of paper and stuck inside.  Both Saley and Dark have a conversational writing style, so they were cool to read, and the sort of historical material that needs to be out there.

What pressing is this record? 
 
There was a 2012 initial pressing and a 2017 reprint, which is what I have.  You can still buy it directly from Smog Veil or Red Hour Records.
 
Do you have any specific memories of listening to this record?  
 
I bought my record player just to listen to this album, so it oddly defines this part of my life so far (living an apartment by myself during the pandemic in essentially the eastside of Tucson, while working a fulltime tech job).
 
What does this album mean to you? 

It’s a definitive record of what laid the groundwork for what became the Clevo hardcore, punk and metal scenes that showed me how I could take control of my own life, and has hence informed basically everything I’ve done since I was 14 in one or more capacities.
 
What’s the story behind you purchasing this album? 

I was actually given the record by Scott “Cheese” Borger from The Cleveland Steamers, who also maintains a couple Clevo punk fan websites, ClePunk and ClePunk Hall of Fame, when I was finished with my work on the Clevo Style ‘zine and sent copies to the people I interviewed, he replied with a small stack of records, CDs and a book. 
 
Any specific memories of listening to this album? 
 
“Support” was on the Dark Empire Strikes Back compilation, and for over a quarter century was the only song I knew by The Guns.  I would play the comp to practically anyone I could get to listen to it in 1994-’95, and oddly, almost magically,  I  lent out so much and somehow I always got it back.  In that era of my life, it was a lot of individual teenaged rockers of various stripes, or small gatherings of us listening to music while our mom’s were at work.  So no specific memories, as we were all way more into Ringworm, Mushroomhead, Integrity, Face Value and Whatever…(sic) who were all also on that comp.  Also Ringworm and Integrity covered The Circle Jerks and Negative Approach on that comp, so there were circles going outward and inward, it was really golden.  That’s how I discovered those two legendary bands among others.
 
What does record collecting mean to you? 
 
Well, I’ve had to abandon collections a few times over the years, so it’s actually nothing but bands from the Cleveland metro area right now, that I got through my research in Clevo hardcore and punk. Record collecting is one of the only things I missed about being steadily housed.  I once told a farm friend, “I’m thinking about settling down, I really want to get some ELO and Super Tramp records.”  I wasn’t kidding!
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