Sizzurp and the Seven Deadly Sins

FaustusIf Lil Wayne had carked it on cough syrup this weekend, I would have spent today’s post trying to defend my fervently held but ridiculous belief that Lollipop is the best pop song ever. (It just is. Listen to it! If you told me it was created by robot lizards from outer space, I’d believe you. Of course, it’s also true that all of the song’s words are stupid and gross.) But it seems Weezy will live to take another sip of Texas Tea, thank goodness, and we can get back to reading Christopher Marlowe’s smashing Doctor Faustus, which needs no defense at all. It was written over four hundred years ago, but it feels like last week’s episode of a cheeky and surreal soap opera. Here (slightly abridged) is how three of the seven deadly sins introduce themselves to Faustus:

WRATH: I am Wrath. I had neither father nor mother. I leaped out of a lion’s mouth when I was scarce half an hour old, and ever since I have run up and down the world with this case of rapiers, wounding myself when I had nobody to fight withal.

ENVY: I am Envy, begotten of a chimney-sweeper and an oyster-wife. I cannot read, and therefore wish all books were burnt. I am lean with seeing others eat. O, that there would come a famine through all the world, that all might die, and I live alone! Then thou shouldst see how fat I would be.

SLOTH: Heigh-ho. I am Sloth. I was begotten on a sunny bank, where I have lain ever since, and you have done me great injury to bring me from thence.

Malvern Skye

Malvern Books likes music. Malvern Books likes metal. Today we have a post from our musical maven, Adam Bratcher, a student and musician from New York…

MastodonMastodon is one of the most, if not the most, prominent bands in the heavy metal/rock music scene. They formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1999. The amazingly talented quartet consists of Troy Sanders as bassist/vocalist, Brent Hinds as guitarist/vocalist, Bill Kellihier on guitar, and Bran Dailor as drummer/vocalist. Mastodon is one of the more notable bands deriving from the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Other bands from this category include Pantera, Clutch, and Biohazard. Formed out of a mutual admiration for stoner rock bands such as the Melvins and Neurosis, Mastodon also derives influence from classic rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, Rush, and Thin Lizzy. Added to this mixture is a hint of grind-core influence from bands such as Pig Destroyer, Stormtroopers of Death (SOD), and Carcass. Mastodon uses all these elements to create an extremely unique and original sound.

Mastodon has been referred to by many as an example of Progressive Rock. Progressive rock is a music genre in which each album narrates a story created by the band. Each of Mastodon’s albums narrates a story with deep, spiritual meanings behind them. Their most recent album, The Hunter, tells a story of a man who is trapped in the woods and receives a power from an unknown supernatural force to communicate with the animals in order to help him survive. While The Hunter is a great album, Mastodon’s most appreciated album is the one they recorded before that, which goes by the name Crack the Skye. The album is an homage to drummer Bran Dailor’s sister, Skye Dailor, who was a paraplegic who committed suicide at the age of 14. It is also considered to be a metaphor for the grueling struggles Mastodon have endured since their formation, which consisted of drug overdoses; violent bar fights resulting in hospitalizations; divorces; and financial issues.

The story behind Crack the Skye is a very complex, spiritual one. It begins with a paraplegic boy who goes out of his body, through the method of astral traveling, into outer space. He goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So, he is in outer space and he is lost. He gets sucked into a wormhole, where he ends up in the spirit realm and talks to spirits, telling them that he is not really dead. They send him to a Russian cult that uses him in a divination and find out his problem. The cult decides they will help him by putting his soul inside Rasputin’s body. Rasputin goes to usurp the Russian Czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin’s body through the crack in the sky(e). Rasputin is the wise man who is trying to lead the child back home to his body because by now his parents have found him and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get the boy back into his body before it’s too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down. The story ends as somewhat of a cliffhanger with the thirteen minute epic song entitled “The Last Baron.”

Mastodon has five albums to its highly respectable name and they are all excellent. If I had to choose a favorite, however, it would have to be Crack the Skye. The music in it is unique, consisting of classic rock elements as well as doom metal and stoner rock jams. Mastodon is an extraordinarily gifted band and hopefully they will have many more musical masterpieces to offer in the future throughout their career.