Black Crown Initiate – The Wreckage Of Stars

Over the last month I’ve been listening to Black Crown Initiate’s 2014 album, “The Wreckage Of Stars.”

This album is one of the best progressive death metal albums I’ve heard over the last few years.

The album was released Sept, 2014 through eOne Music and was produced by Carson Slovak who has worked with bands like August Burn Red, Texas In July, and Everclear.

The album hit #18 on the Billboard Headseekers chart.

The band is based out of Reading, PA, and are managed through Outerloop Management.

The members include, James Dorton (vocals), Wes Hauch (guitar, formally of The Faceless), Andy Thomas (guitar and vocals), Nick Shaw (bass), and Jesse Beahler (formally of Rings of Saturn).

When most people think of death metal bands they automatically assume the band is all screaming, brutal, fast, with inaudible vocals.

This album embodies the sound and speed of brutal death metal with beautiful melodic parts, guitar shredding, drum chops, and clean singing.

They did a great job combing the fast and brutal elements of modern day technical death metal with melodic parts that people that don’t listen to this genre of music can tolerate.

I’ve shown this album to people that don’t listen to death metal and they enjoyed the clean singing melodic parts of the song.

Drummers should listen to this album, Jesse, the drummer, did an amazing job writing drums.

He has these crazy blasts with 200+ bpm 8th notes on the kick drum that transition into “gospel chop” type chops giving the songs an indescribable feel.

The movement of the songs fit very well together and it’s so sonically pleasing to have a band as brutal as them be able to transition from such brutal technical death metal elements to beautiful melodic parts with clean singing.

I haven’t heard bands that were able to pull off something like this.

This is an album I highly suggest people listen to, especially drummers.

This album is very well written and surprised is not spoken about more.

The band has a great following but after hearing this album, they deserve to be bigger .

Angel City Brewery

On Dec. 7, I went to the Angel City Brewery in Los Angeles for a company Christmas party were I par took in food and alcohol.

Driving in Los Angeles might be a bit tricky for those that don’t have any knowledge of driving on the city due to many small sharp turn streets.

I myself took a wrong turn looking for the brewery, but that was due to a GPS malfunction.

Parking wasn’t that bad, the usual motorist struggle, but I managed to get lucky finding a spot on the street.

The building looked like an old brick factory with big metal garage doors, but inside the building looked like a normal bar with a lot of long wooden tables and benches.

Like most bars, they sold food as well as alcohol except the food was made outside the brewery in a food truck.

The food truck that night served mainly hot dogs and I ended up getting a polish hot dog, it was good at first, but midway through the dog the spices became too overbearing like there was too much salt.

I also got these tater tots that were delicious, they had parmesan cheese sprinkled on top along with a spicy thousand island dressing.

The brewery also had mini games like connect four, jenga, darts and other small games for its customers to play.

We also got a small tour of the facility mainly where the beer was distilled, and stored which took about 25 minutes in total.

At the end of the tour the guide gave us all samples of three beers: Belgian Style Wit, Berliner Wiess and Amber ale.

My personal favorite was the Belgian Style Wit, it was light and had a good taste to it.

Overall the experience I had at the Angel City Brewery was  good.

Are we really thankful?

Thanksgiving came along quick this year and so did the irony of Black Friday.

In a holiday where people give thanks for everything that they have and what is to come in their near future.

Families come together and sit around the dinner table to enjoy a family meal where many say grace for what they are thankful for.

Families cook special meals that are probably only cooked once a year to enjoy with other family members to embrace unity.

Yet, the very next day the same people who were saying grace for what they are thankful for are in stores bombarding each other for good deals.

Some people do not enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner or day because they are already lining up at a BestBuy or a Fry’s electronics store to be the first into the stores.

How has it become a part of American culture to one day being thankful for everything you have and the next day rushing into stores for savings?

Black Friday should be moved to another week or month because there is no way it should share the same week as Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving day and week should be just dedicated to enjoying it with your family or friends and enjoying each other’s company.

The week should not be dedicated to plan out what aisles are you going to attack first or what store has the best deals and what time should you meet up to get in line.

Black Friday should go away it should not exist but it is a clear depiction of the power of capitalism and the greed people really have.

Between His World And Ours

Ta-Nehisi Coates at a reading.

by Stanley Delgado

Between The World And Me is the latest memoir by Te-Nehisi Coates structured as a letter to his son. In the letter, published 2015, Coates focuses on the struggle of black lives in America and the subtle battles he and his community have faced his entire life.

Coates probes deeply into his own memory and it’s this relentless honesty and questioning which gives this book its urgent feel.

Toni Morrison, an American novelist, professor, and social and political activist, claims that Between The World And Me is required reading and she is correct. Coates’ language creates the kind of microcosm that reveals the universal struggle shared by many; it is this kind of writing that can travel across all junctions of intersectionality and into the heart of society at large just in the same way that Catcher In The Rye or Invisible Man do.

Between The World And Me is very much a spiritual successor to James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, a book similarly styled as a letter and call-to-arms as well, and just as Baldwin’s work was told from a very specific point of place and time for black men and women, so is Coates’ book.

What defines Between The World And Me and makes it so important is its point of view, its voice: a contemporary voice, reared on hip-hop, movies, television, video games, and black philosophers alike, and who is also a father. It is this which gives Between The World its sense of now – the sense that this is happening outside your home, whether or not you lock the door or peek through the blinds.

Coates has succeeded in showing us the modern landscape for many black men and women – landscape that still considers black lives as inferior but in such an indirect and devious manner that when black people call attention to it, they are deemed as the “bad” ones who are not “thankful enough” to live in this day and age, as if a great force out there could take their freedom away at a moments notice.

Between The World And Me is a book entirely of current times. It is a work which has been long overdue considering that Coates is exactly what is needed today: a writer of today who understands that yesterday wasn’t so long ago.

Other Sounds

by Stanley Delgado

Animal Collective make what they call pop but what most would call, at worst, noise and at best, experimental. Merriweather Post Pavilion, their eighth album released in 2009, captures Animal Collective at their best, taking their unusual instrumentation and blending it with the past to create something that it entirely familiar, fresh, and their own.

Merriweather is a great introductory album to experimental music because of its emotional depth, off-kilter instrumentation, and unique take on melody.

Merriweather is an album about being caught up in emotions.  “Bluish” feels like being inside the mind of someone who has not only fallen in love with someone but fallen in love with the very idea of love. “My Girls” feels like the lament of a new father or mother realizing that they are living for someone else (“I don’t mean to seem like I care about material things…I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls”).

To evaluate the instrumentation of Merriweather is an act of futility as Animal Collective ditched typical instruments entirely and used nothing but synthesizers and samplers – there are no instruments on this album, only sounds.

They used everything they could get their hands on; from using empty water gallons for drums, recording their children playing in a bathtub, sinks draining, dogs barking. All of these sounds, when by themselves, remind you of everyday life, but when they are composed in the way that they are on Merriweather, they elevate the sounds of common life as sounds of nature, of beauty. 

Atop the walls of sound that this album throws at you, sit Dave Portner and Noah Lennox, the founding members of the band.Where they triumph against other pop singers is that they are able to sing to fit (or fight) the mood; “Taste” is their greatest display; two separate choruses sung at the same time which that harmonize perfectly with each other.

One of the common complaints of Merriweather—of Animal Collective as a whole really—is their repetition. For “Brother Sport“, they aren’t shy about using the same two chords and same mantra over and over but what this repetition does is create a sense of childhood awe; when Animal Collective stumble onto a chord or melody, they get struck with excitement that only children get, causing them to repeat it over and over, each time a little more frantic than the last.

Merriweather is an album that demands to be heard as an album, as one singular sound, flaws and all. 

Join LAPD Or Naw

Cerritos College is having a workshop for those interested in a career in law enforcement. LAPD is hiring over 300+ police officers with a salary starting at $59,717. You’ll be able to attend this workshop on Wednesday Nov. 2 at 5 p.m. in SS138, entrance exam starts at 6:30 p.m. The workshop will give you facts bout the career and will answer your questions if any. Personally I don’t think $59,717 is enough money to be putting your life on the line. Especially nowadays with all the backlash the police department has for all the police brutality cases. Also to become an officer there should be more training on the use of non-lethal tactics than pulling out a gun. Whether you decide to enter this field one must remember the responsibility and consequences of their actions.

Macy’s Hiring Event

Flyers for job hiring events are scattered throughout the campus at Cerritos College.

Macy’s is having a one-day holiday hiring event with over 1,000 positions available.

From 9 a.m. to 5p.m. November 3 there is on-the-spot hiring for five Macy’s stores, Culver City, Baldwin Hills, Beverly Center, Manhattan Beach, and Westside Pavilion.

Online applications began October 10th however you can still apply online by clicking “LA Westside Hiring Event” on the Macy’s website.

You can apply in person at L.A. Southwest College located at 1600 West Imperial Highway Los Angeles, CA 90047, parking is free.

This is a great opportunity for college students looking for seasonal part-time work.

The holiday’s is always a busy time for businesses and are always seeking positions for people looking for extra work.

For more informations you can contact Business Marketing Coordinator Arthur Guerrero at aguerrero@letc.com (323) 730-7900 ext.227.

Sausage Party review

Seth Rogen’s sausage party is a real funny animated movie. What comes from it is Seth’s usual witty humor in this animated film.

Not only does this film give us good laughs but also give us messages to think about when we leave the theater.

The film talks about religious and sexual freedom be able to explore what you believe is correct without bashing other people.

It is a great way to send a message to people to have them express themselves the way that they choose by having them laugh while learning something important.

It is a must go see film not only for Seth Rogen fans but mature individuals.