Happy Thanksgiving from the boys of Kill Ritual and… um, someone’s Mom.
Tag: Use Your Head
Religious Extremism
We’ve noticed with the recent events in France that religious extremism does not work and people are starting to get sick of it. They are either turning extreme to another Religious faction or they are ‘waking up’ and realizing that Religion is a means for misrepresented belief. A belief outside of themselves which we can say from politics, from Dogma, is control. It’s easy to control people if you get them to doubt something. If you get them to believe that if they don’t believe something then they will go to Hell. I know many people that are part of a Religion ‘Just in Case’. But I digress… I think believing in something is helpful. If it is helpful for you to believe in Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Krishna or the New England Patriots… by all means. Believe in it, but don’t bend the rules to your benefit. That’s not fair. If you’re going to be a Christian then follow the 10 Commandments. ALL of them, not some. People seem to bend the rules all of the time and they just use the excuse of ‘I’m a sinner’. Get where I’m going? Religious extremism has been around longer than you can imagine. History shows us that the Christians were just as brutal at one time. First it was the destruction of the Pagans, then the Saxons, oh yeah… can’t forget the Crusades now can we? I could go on and on about Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Muslim, etc. and I could give you plenty of examples of horrible violence. All in the name of Religion. Like I said in the beginning… we just saw it in France.
I had mentioned that some people turn to extremes, I’ll use this recent tragedy as an example. Some are quick to jump on the bandwagon that ALL Muslims are bad. Not all Muslims are bad, just like not all Christians are bad. There is good and bad in everything. What we can learn from this is that it has opened our eyes to ‘what does not work’ and fix it or we can do like we’ve done for centuries and start another war. That seems to be our easy solution to everything. Makes me ill. Why does it make me ill? Because there was a time in my life where I believed this mentality, I was part of the system. Believe me… I was in the Marines. My mentality was ‘Kill ’em all. Let God sort ’em out.’ Sometimes you have to experience extremes, both left and right, to find your own center.
My hope for humanity is that we will all look within. If we believe the story of Jesus, we know that he was a compassionate man. He believed in turning the other cheek and that two wrongs do not make a right. I challenge you to be ‘Christ like’ and leave behind the old ‘Christian’ Dogma that has been shoved down out throats for centuries. Time to take back your power!
Namaste,
David
Kill Ritual! Yes!
RCRDList Nov. 24 – Karma Machine by Kill Ritual (@KILLRITUAL) – http://eepurl.com/bGYUXb
Updated Social Media Sites
We’ve spent the last couple of days updating our social media sites. If you are on any of these sites please add us. We’d appreciate the support.
There are some big things coming down the pipe for 2016. Starting it out we will be opening for Graham Bonnett while we are at NAMM. Click here for the Facebook Invite. If you are in the Anaheim area please stop by to give us a listen. We’ve got a tour shaping up as well. We’ll be finalizing everything before the end of the year and hope to make it to your town. Send us a note on your favorite social media site or just email us. Tell us you want us to come to your town.
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Paris
We deeply sympathize with the advents in Paris yesterday. As touring musicians we can’t even imagine how the members of the Eagles of Death Metal feel at this moment and our hearts go out to them, their crew and their families. Collectively we feel this was another cowardly act on innocent civilians and terrorism will always lose in the end.
We don’t know when our time will end on this planet so love those around you and spread as much peace and joy that you can muster during this time of sorrow.
Peace,
David, Steven, Bobby and Kore
Poppies and Patriotism
A few days ago I got back from England where Taylor, her mother and I went on ‘Holiday’, as they say over there. This past weekend was the start of their Remembrance Day which is on the 11th day of the 11th month every year for all of their veterans throughout the years. We saw people wearing poppies everywhere we looked. There was even a ceremony at the Tower of London where they laid 888,246 hand-made poppies. It was impossible to NOT be a part of this. Taylor and I were even wearing them. You almost felt out of place if you weren’t wearing them. I felt proud to be a veteran over there. Coming back to the US I have felt bittersweet.
Why bittersweet?
Because I wish I felt the same way here in the US as I did over there. I’ve never had a day off of work for Veterans Day, nor the Marine Corp Birthday. I have barely gotten any recognition for my service. Like every service member that I personally know, we loved every bit of our service, and still to this day I am a very proud Marine. We thought we were doing something special. We thought we were making a difference in the world. I might have long hair, earrings and guy liner, play guitar and sing in a Rock band, but every aspect of who I am, of my time in service and out, comes through in my lyrics. I am a firm believer that you can’t speak of anything unless you’ve walked in another’s shoes. Walk the Walk, as they say. I think I’ve walked enough wearing different shoes throughout my short time on this planet to say this… not too many people here give a #%@. By no means am I saying that nobody gives a#%@, but a good amount of our country lives in a different reality of consumerism. An unconscious consumerism without any regard to consequences. Living in their own little reality while our Government keeps them and then highjacks it from under their noses.They have been highjacked through the Patriot Act, TSA, our uselessly corrupt politicians and the media. They keep you pre-occupied on Facebook, Television, Walmart, etc., to where your mind is so filled with what you can get right now that you’ve lost perspective on the future. Today, in America, Veterans Day is another Facebook event that everybody will forget about until next year. I’ll be the first to say that we Veterans aren’t asking for handouts. We’re not asking to be treated more special than anybody else. But for one day we would like everybody in our country to truly understand what it means to be a Veteran. It means sacrifice. The only sacrifice I see today is our rights as citizens.
America is losing it. The country I served was already on a downward spiral and got worse from the first Gulf War. I thought my time in service would be making a difference, upholding the constitution that so many before me died for because they believed it to be the best idea yet. I too felt that. But coming back to America, getting off a plane and being shuttled like cattle through TSA, with them looking ever more suspicious at all of us really made me question what it was all about? Where did we go wrong? How is it with all of the information in our databases they could not see in my passport that I am a Marine? I’m not asking for special privileges. I’m not asking to get shuttled to the front of the line. Just a ‘Thank You’ for my service instead of the evil eye seeing if I was a terrorist. I watched a young girl jump in front of line in front of an old Veteran in a wheelchair with no acknowledgement at all, as if he didn’t exist.
I’m not saying Europe is better, and to be honest I don’t know the politics in each of their countries, but the feeling… the feeling is different. It was a feeling that I haven’t felt since I was a child. I didn’t feel like a prisoner. I didn’t feel like I was going to lose everything if I didn’t make enough money. I could talk to random people on the street or in a bar without feeling a threat. People were ‘living’ over there. Really living. We saw shops where they closed at 2:30pm and would reopen at 4:30pm for their own downtime, their lunchtime. Shops didn’t open until noon on Sunday. That’s where I say that America is losing it.
Today… the only thing I ask of each of you is this… What have you sacrificed and what are you willing to do today to change the world for tomorrow?
Peace,
David
NAMM and Graham Bonnet
Kill Ritual will be performing 1/22/16 during the NAMM show at Malone’s in Santa Ana with the legendary x-Rainbow/MSG/Alcatrazz singer Graham Bonnet. Presented by House Of Metal! We’ll have special T-shirt/CD/Ticket packages available. Contact us for details. More US tour dates soon!
