3 out of 5

Label: Skin Graft Records / Box Records

Produced by: ?

Fun but flawed, this well-intentioned split provides a nigh-great EP from Psychic Graveyard, and a compelling but somewhat underwhelming set from USA Nails, both halves stymied by sequencing.

Tapping into the nervy, horror-tinged noise punk of their Deathbomb Arc output, PG kick off with some devastating grooves and off-kilter lyrics and imagery, frankly finding the perfect edge between Arab on Radar’s assault, and the electro-dance that was found in the band’s first efforts, carried over from Chinese Stars: the promise of nowave industrial, played via found, destructive sounds for rhythm and set to death march beats comes to fruition, with tracks 1 through 3 just getting darker and denser. …And then it’s dance punk again? ‘What Happens At Zero’ unfortunately feels like a relic of the comparatively more accessible state in which the band started – poppy, fast-paced, “quirky” – and it’s kind of a let down from the tension built up before. The instrumental that follows is plenty weird, but its effectiveness is watered down by the inclusion of this upbeat number.

USA Nails then choose to start their side with their weakest track, an under-a-minute riffless hodgepodge. As an intro to the group’s general bravado, it’s not bad, and I’d even say would work to kick off a standalone EP, but it’s not strong enough following the PG material… Sequencing can be a killer, y’all. That said, I then get 100% on board with the reverbed assault of ‘A Two Footed Jump Into A Wall Whilst Chewing On Fingernails,’ which pummels like it means it, and is like the meeting of the first Die!Die!Die! record with anti-riffage no-wave – making the appearance on Skin Graft logical, though the pairing with PG is a bit less justified, excepting that band’s SG legacy via Eric Paul projects.

USA does veer slightly into similar dance punk territory, admittedly, but prior to that, they take advantage of the cavernous production with ‘What Have We Become?’; a Young Widows-esque stomp I find incredibly intriguing. But beyond those track, it’s like a great bundle of directionless musical energy, with just enough lyrical sharpness or sudden anarchic compositions to give it structure / genre to identify, before melting back into something slightly more generically “loud.” I sense this is material better heard as an already inundated fan (perhaps clearly, I’m new to the band), whereas PG’s first few tracks are wholly arresting without precedent.

A lot to appreciate / discover here, and worthy of replays to dig in, even if the sum total is uneven.