I don’t think the new vocalist Hernan Hermida is as good a vocalist as Mitch Lucker. But, even if he were, that’s not the point. The point is, he’s not Mitch Lucker.
Did the Doors get a new vocalist when Jim Morrison died? No, they did not. They quit. (After trying to carry on for a little while as a threesome, releasing two “Doors” albums into oblivion.) Some band members are essential to the identity of a band, not mere session musicians.
Mitch Lucker was such an essential. Too bad he had to get drunk, argue with his wife, then jump on his motorcyle only to wrap himself around a utility pole, leaving his wife a widow and his 5-year-old daughter fatherless. 😥
Some things in life are happy accidents. Like the fact that Suicide Silence vocalist Mitch Lucker is releasing his band’s second album, ‘No Time to Bleed,’ on June 30, the same day his daughter turns two. When he’s not touring, the 24-year-old Lucker is a full time dad. “I go from two extremes,” Lucker told Noisecreep. “From being full-time on tour for three months straights to flying home and being at her beck and call until I go to bed! That’s also my job. They’re both me. I wouldn’t have it any other way!”
Being his daughter’s primary caregiver presents a conundrum for Lucker and that’s leaving her for brief spurts to tour the country. “It’s the hardest thing I deal with, but what I’m doing is the reason we have a roof over our heads and that I can take care of her. I hate being gone, but my family couldn’t survive without me going on tour. Tons of fathers out there don’t want to wake up and go to work, but they have to, in order provide. I don’t consider Suicide Silence work. I just tell her, ‘Daddy is going to leave and go play music now!'” Lucker makes the separation bearable through technology like Skype and his cell phone, saying, “It’s cool to be able to be elsewhere and hear her.”
Lucker’s daughter is probably the youngest attendee at Suicide Silence shows, too. “We put the decibel-eliminating headphones on her and she is super entertained.” Her first show wasn’t Suicide Silence, though; it was Circa Survive’s Anthony Green on a solo tour. “The bus dropped me off at the end of the Mayhem tour and that night, I took her to the show. She sat her on my shoulders. As long as there are lights, movement and music, that girl is happy. She saw me performing, telling the crowd to jump up and put their hands in air. I looked over at her in the corner on stage and she was jumping up and down and dancing, too!” And with that, Lucker pulls the phone from his mouth and says, “Hi, baby. Don’t tell mommy ‘no.’ You have to take your vitamins.” He comes back to the interview conversation, saying, “She’s gotta take her vitamins, you know?”
One thing’s for sure, though. Alcohol and motorcycles don’t mix.
He’s an alcoholic, and it’s a been a big battle. And I tried to stop him. I was in front of him begging him not to leave the house. Begging him. Like, ‘Just seriously, for us, don’t leave.’ And he did. And this is what happened. I mean, It’s a wake-up call. He’s an amazing man. He’s a wonderful father and a great husband. And now he’s gonna miss out on watching [his five-year-old daughter] Kena grow, because he decided to drink and ride. Just don’t. Just think before you guys do something stupid. Please learn from this. Please.
All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask. Yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask. – Martin Luther
I asked God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, most richly blessed. – Martin Luther
One day there will be no more pain, like an opiate wonderland
No more worry, it will all just end
And all of our forward movement will finally cease
The human machine will finally bleed
The human machine will finally cease to be
So set yourself free
And disengage from reality
So set yourself free
And disengage from reality
The grounds will shake and your children will tremble
Soon enough the machine will fall
And we will all crumble
The human machine will finally bleed and cease to be
We’ll finally be set free
Be set free
Be set free
Just be glad you know what life is
Be glad you know
You know what life is
You know what life is
One day there will be no worry
No more pain, it will all just end
And all of our forward movement will finally cease
Objectivism‘s founder Ayn Rand, for all her genius, was a bad philosopher. She, and her successor Leonard Peikoff, attempt to define God out of existence in what maverick philospher Bill Vallicella likens to “a bad ontological argument in reverse”.
It is like a bad ontological argument in reverse. On one bad version of the ontological argument, one defines God into existence by smuggling the notion of existence into the concept of God and then announcing that since we have the concept of God, God must exist. Peikoff is doing the opposite: he defines God and the supernatural out of existence by importing their nonexistence into the term ‘existence.’ But you can no more define God into existence than you can define him out of existence.
Catholicism and communism … Their differences pertain only to the supernatural, but here, in reality, on earth, they have three cardinal elements in common: the same morality, altruism—the same goal, global rule by force—the same enemy, man’s mind.
Note that Rand uses the term ‘reality’ to refer to this world only, excluding the next. Perhaps this use of the term is not so uncommon. Surely, Mitch Lucker had some such definition in mind when he exhorts us to “disengage from reality”.
From a Christian perspective, to disengage from reality is to disengage from this world. This world is Satan’s dominion. Jesus said (speaking to the Jews)
Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.
From a Christian perspective, to disengage from reality is to follow Christ. To disengage is also to let go, to set free, to remit, to release, to pardon, to forgive.
Disengage is a song about forgiveness and about following Christ (with lashings of Christian eschatology). Stretching too long a bow? Just be glad you know what life is.
