Band history
Dark Angel priest
Kilby:Ryan-Tyler - brainchild, founding member, tenor vocalist, & guitarist
Born and raised 60 miles south of Boston (or approximately 96.57 kilometers if you live in Europe) Ryan Kilby was born into a middle class family; his mother always encouraged music and she would constantly play Broadway musicals on the stereo system. She even one time took him and his brother to see "Fiddler on the Roof," in which he thought was boring! His father would play Cat Stevens, Billy Joel, Elton John, and the local rock radio station while driving. Growing up, Ryan and his older brother shared an electric keyboard together (although the keyboard was kept in his brother's room.) At age 11, Ryan started to learn Trumpet, Electric Guitar, and would eventually begin learning Trombone. Ryan would then join the local middle school Jazz band as the Guitarist. In High School, Ryan focused on American football, so he gave up on music for a while. While in College though, Ryan began voice lessons for 6 months and picked up his Guitar once more.
Fast forward to the summer of 2021, Ryan restarted his voice lessons and met Billy Armenia and his former wife. This trio would be the roots and founding members of Dark Angel Priest, but they didn't have a band name yet. Billy was an Army Veteran and a really excellent guitarist! But unfortunately, there were creative differences between the two, so there was a mutual splitting of the band. No hard feelings, just creative differences. So a few years go by and Ryan meets bassist and drummer Tim Albert, and would bring him on board. They would write one song together, and would finally come up with a band name! Dark Angel Priest. The name was mainly inspired by Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. Other inspirations are Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Megadeth, Metallica, The Beatles, and Dio.
In the summer of 2024, Ryan's van was impounded by the R.I. State Police (song about that later) and was left utterly homeless. He also picked up a disorderly conduct charge from the Masse family, who were a local business family, that was out for him. This led to the most difficult and drudgerous summers of his lifetime, but would accomplish some major milestones musically. Ryan would finally start up his own YouTube and Spotify channels! He was also able to get on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and iHeartRadio. Despite the hardships that summer, Ryan exceeded his goals and was able to perform in Newport, Rhode Island. That year, Ryan would release two originals and 5 covers! On December 2024, Ryan would move to Central Florida due to being homeless in Rhode Island.
Dark Angel Priest is now based out of the Tampa Bay area of Florida.
Frequenly asked questions
Where did the name dark angel priest come from?
Honestly, I was inspired by Judas Priest and Black Sabbath plus my former band-mate & founding member Tim Albert and I kind of came up with the name. He was more inspired by Slayer and we wrote one unpublished song together in which I will release later on. It's just a name though, it's not necessarily evil. Dark angels are actually wrathful spirits who exact vengence against those who maliciously cause ill will and suffering to God's people according to esoteric wisdom. Think of it as the Grim Reaper, if you will, the angel of death. It can also be interpreted too as demons by the dumb ignorant American Christians, as their knowledge is limited. That was kind of my ulterior motive for the name as well, to scare away the dumb ignorant greedy hateful American Christians. But most Americans have never been outside the continent like I have, the best way to combat ignorance is to be educated and self cultivation.
How many years have you been playing guitar?
I have been playing guitar since I was 11 years old.
How old are you?
Old enought to be you're Dad.
Are you Christian Metal?
No, and here's why. I want to go in a secular direction, though I grew up a Christian I actually left the Church when I saw the tremendous amount of hypocrisy and corruption in the Church. I was agnostic in my late teens to my early twenties, then I converted to Buddhism in my early twenties and have been a practicing student of Buddhism since. Though my music does have religious/spiritual undertones in it, I can't help it; it was a big part of my upbringing, especially when I was in Elementary School. As a matter of fact, my single "American Christian Woman" is actually about myself and what I have done; but it's also an open criticism of the American Church Complex. Also too, all my former bandmates are not Christian; Billy & his wife were agnostic, and Tim was a Wiccan. I myself am a Buddhist, not an American Christian sorry. I've just seen and experienced too much, although I respect Christianity, the problem with it though is that it can get dogmatic and weird. As Japanese Zen Master Takuan Soho once said, "At their core, all religions are essentially the same." However, Jesse (who is currently one of my session guitarists and a fellow tenor singer himself) is a devout Catholic. Like I said before, I respect the teachings of Yeshua, but there is just too much ignorance, greed, and corruption in the American Church especially.