I’m not usually down with split releases, but the last one I got featuring thrashers Hell On and Pripjat was actually pretty good, and now this one featuring Corporation SS and Beaten, both from Indiana, is also pretty solid.
Corporation SS is the grind/crust band featuring members of Invasion and Yellowtooth, notably Orchestrated Misery Recordings owner, Pete Clemens. The 9 tracks they deliver are no-frills, crusty, noisy grindcore that hearkens back to the likes of Defecation, Terrorizer, and such. They are raw and gravelly, especially Clemens’s voice, which made my throat hurt from just listening to it. The 9 songs vary from short sub minute bursts (“Corporate Pigs”, “Wargasm”) to 5 minutes (“Loyalties Divided”), with plenty in-between “(“You’re No Good to Me Dead”) and deliver sneering power chords and blasts and even some punch, punky melody (“Suffer”, “Processed”).
Michigan City’s Beaten on the other hand is a more pure death metal band with roots in old school Swedish death metal akin to Nihilist’s earlier stuff. They have the classic Swedish, d beat /crust, Autopsy hued (especially “Stab Him”) canter and trundle down perfectly as highlighted on “Souls”, “Insects”, “Crosshairs” and standout “To Write in Blood”, with its Unleashed styled romp.
At 46 minutes, this is a high content split and has 2 solid sets of material from 2 bands that appear to be somewhat intertwined and of similar quality. Good stuff.
