From Dean Riley:
When researching for the album “The Murder Of Jesus The Jew” you pretty much arrived at a solid idea of who you think the true historical Jesus (behind all the myth) really was. Were there any other narratives you uncovered both of the fanciful and credible that you had to check out and wade through during your research?

I read over 80 books as well as tomes of internet pages to cipher through various opinions and religious dogma. Lee Strobel’s ‘The Case for Christ’ being the most laughable, but I needed to read this to rip apart his nonsense. He is a top Christian journalist, who wrote a book about proving the New Testament, and Jesus through investigative journalism. To hammer the facts into the ignorant so to speak. But his facts are based on faith and it really is a pretentious pile of drivel. [It was a book I enjoyed though and it helped me reach my own conclusions]

I read a lot of New Testament apocrypha works that appeared around the times of the Gospels that were never included in the bible. Works relating to other disciples and their own supposed movements after the crucifixion. There is also a text relating to Jesus as a boy using his powers to harm another. These had as much validity as the gospels, and yet were overlooked as maybe a bit too fanciful. [and the gospels are not!!!….]

It’s a shame that Historical/ logical reasoning destroys these fantastic ancient myths, and more so the followers who must deep in their hearts know they are grasping at nonsense.

I am researching Islam for the next album, [can’t say much about it as it covers many frailties of Humanity] and if can see such duplicity in how both religions reach out from fantastic roots to languish on the shores of modernity, the only difference is, time teaches tolerance, and Christianity now has that, and Islam has not.

500 years ago, Christianity was no less frightening, no less brutal, and no less cruel. I fear for my sons, and their sons, as it will take another 2-300 years before Islam’s own extremism is tempered.