That being said, when folks wind up working on projects such as these, it becomes the gospel for people searching through recorded music’s past. And with Cleveland sporting such a rich and long running history, taking a look at a few recollected memories – as well as some compiled demos – can’t hurt too much, now can it?
After the first wave of bands during the mid ‘70s and subsequently the Pagans and the entire Cleveland Confidential crew, punk began taking its tempo ever more seriously. Ratcheting things up to levels where it must have been difficult to keep up bands in Cleveland – all of Ohio and the rest of the nation – started laying the foundation for what would eventually become hardcore.
Folks cite the Zero Boys as being an early piece of all of this, but the pacings that those Indiana folks were trucking wasn’t really anything akin to what would transpire during the nascent period of Cleveland’s the Guns. And while the ensemble remains a rather obscure footnote in the legacy of punk, the Guns were able to reel off some demo material that surpasses a good deal of what was going on at some of the bigger independent labels at the time.
During the early ‘80s Tom Eakin and Robert Griffin, Scott Eakin and David Araca (the latter two were barely out of elementary school) performed as the Dark. With the pacing of its songs growing ever faster, Scott Eakin and Araca decided to work under a different name as a result of the sonic shifting that was going on - thus, the Guns.
Working things out as a duo for a while, the Guns eventually picked up Sean Saley (Starvation Army) to play bass. After the line-up was solidified, the trio headed to a studio located in the eastern suburbs – which is kind of bizarre considering what those neighborhoods look like nowadays. The demo cuts that were set down in 1984 never saw proper release, but have apparently gained enough of a cult around it to begin circulating the interwebs.
Considering the band’s age at the time of the recording session, it’s not too surprising to find that the lyrical content involving some reference to dressing how one pleases, school, drugs and the other standard punk tropes for teens. That being said, the Guns churn it out in distinguished style.
Everything here is still rendered in nasty terms with a metal inflection cropping up every once in a while – and specifically “Caste of Talent” with that introductory scream. Taking issue with that one point, though, might be the only criticism to levy on these thirteen songs.
The band’s avowed classic “I’m Not Right” is present and apes a decent Black Flag thing. Of course, separating the Guns from the relatively erudite – in the hardcore world at least – Cali band isn’t difficult. But if this Cleveland ensemble hadn’t been torn asunder there could have been a possibility at stardom of the underground variety.