Alastor Listens To Reggae [Hazbin Hotel Fanfic]

Alastor Listens To Reggae Chapter 7: 'Til Siloh by Buju Banton

It was that time again, time to relax with that glass of rye and continue exploring the genre known as reggae.

After listening to some more Bob Marley for reliability's sake the previous night, Alastor was up for taking another chance. He was in the right mood to risk listening to something subpar in exchange for the possibility of listening to something fresh and exciting.

So he once again called upon Husk to find a suitable album for tonight.

"Hello again Husk," Alastor said after summoning him.

Husk was visibly displeased to see Alastor. He was clearly hoping for more time apart after last night's break.

"So I take it that you want me to find you another reggae album?" Husk despondently asked.

"You guessed correctly," Alastor enthused. "This time I want you to give me something different, a shock to the system if you will."

"I'll see what I can do," Husk sighed as he took out his smartphone. "I've found one called 'Til Siloh by an artist called Buju Banton. It's considered a classic, but it hopefully has the energy that you're looking for."

"Excellent. Thank you once again," Alastor said as he sent Husk back to the bar.

Now it was time to see if Husk was correct. Alastor summoned 'Til Siloh onto the record player, set it to play and waited to listen to it with his glass of rye.

The opening began with a few lines of acapella. The usual stuff about Jah. Nothing too new.

Then the next song, Til I'm Laid To Rest, began in earnest. Here Buju Banton's vocals were a blast of power. They even overtook the rather powerful percussion section that was playing behind him. Alastor didn't even know people could sing so powerfully in the reggae genre. This was just what Alastor was looking for.

He had been a bit disappointed in Junior Murvin's inability to preserve the quality that he had initially started his album Police & Thieves with, but Alastor had hope that Buju Banton could go the distance, make an album that Alastor didn't quit halfway through.

So Alastor continued to listen to the song. Alastor wasn't going to lie, it was pretty hard to parse the lyrics. They seemed pretty scattershot. But there was a strange power to it. Like Banton wanted to sing about so much that he couldn't help but be all over the place. It was almost as if the singer was trying to depict a reality with so many problems pulling him in so many different directions, but this reality also had a strange sense of hope lying on top of all these problems at the same time to further complicate things. It felt pretty true to life in a way, where so much of life is spent delving through misery with only a few faint moments of hope, but still that hope could be so sweet.

The only real problem that Alastor had with the song was that it was a bit long. After a while it became a bit repetitive. But that was just a minor complaint. Overall this was quite the song.

Towards the end the song came together with a clear message to come together as one. As previously stated, Alastor had no use for this message in his own life but still enjoyed it, as he had seen other people come together to achieve great things, some of which he had personally enjoyed.

Then came a call to ignore exterior riches in favor of spiritual pursuits. Though Alastor disliked the excessively greedy, in fact he often targeted them, the closest thing that Alastor had to a spiritual sense called him to do things that Banton would probably abhor. Though Alastor might not be greedy, preferring to only make enough to keep up a status of class, whatever this Zion Banton was singing about passed Alastor by a long time ago.

The next song up, Murderer, opened with a less immediately powerful beginning, instead it began with some sort of keys or synth. Banton's voice did continue to passionately call out though. This time he was calling out murderers, something Alastor most definitely was. Were Alastor's insides hollow like Banton's lyrics claimed they were? Possibly.