Both Count von Count and On the Radar veterans Electric Horsemen come out with riffs blazing on their limited-to-300-copies self-released split. The Muppetly-named Delaware four-piece start with “Pharmboss,” and the Lancaster County merchants come forth with “Prairie Witch.” It’s a short blip of a split with just those two tracks plus two others, but a loud one, and each act heaps a heavy shovel-load of sludge in their allotted time. They take turns, rather than divide up the disc into halves, which works here since they have such congruous sounds but might be awkward for bands not so similarly suited.

It’s riffs and screams on “Pharmboss,” which seems a simple enough post-Eyehategod formula until the song opens up to a massive stoner riff at 3:39, showing there’s more to Count von Count than trudging guitars and slow-paced maliciousness. When Electric Horsemen answer back with “Prairie Witch,” it’s almost an echo, since the song, despite some rawer production and volume difference, takes essentially the same tactic. Electric Horsemen sound a little dirtier, a little thicker, but if you were to put this disc on and go do laundry or whatever it is human beings do while they listen to music other than write about it in their pajamas, I’d doubt if the difference would take you aback at all.

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