With the departure of their vocalist Douglas Robinson, Night Verses have continued on as a 3-piece instrumental band. As a surprise they released their newest EP titled Copper Wasp which has released through Equal Vision and produced by none other than Will Putney(Every Time I Die, Knocked Loose), which seems to have played an influence into how the EP turned out. For an instrumental album, or EP for that matter, to really stand out it needs to incorporate both musicianship and bring some sort of other quality that makes up for the lack of vocals.

Copper Wasp starts off the whole thing, providing a nice taste of what we can expect from the band as they work on LP3. The song combines some sampling of people talking throughout, which makes up for that lack of vocals that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Also, with there being no vocals the instruments, especially guitar, are brought to the forefront and acts as the vocals during some sections. Aric kills it on the drums as always, but the other two(Nick DePirro on guitar, and

Reilly Herrera on bass) surprised me equally as much, if not more at times. It resembles a lot of their earlier work in some ways while having a much more mature aspect to it.

Reintroducing The Band To The World

Vice Wave might be my favorite of the 3 because it has some super memorable sections, particularly the guitar licks around the 1:30 mark. The drums and bass interplay beautifully throughout the song, staying tight and together. Towards the end of the song, we hear that overly driven guitar as a man talks, suddenly transitioning into the true climax of not only the song but the EP. Transitioning from that into the final song really kept me hooked, and before I knew it I had already finished the entire EP. That may be my only complaint, is that I wanted to hear more. This EP essentially reintroduces the band to the world.

Vantablonde starts off completely different than the previous songs but that’s a great thing. With this inclusion of hand percussion, then assisted suddenly being assisted by a bass and what appears to be guitar section. This song demonstrates how truly talented the band is, and that you don’t need a vocalist to make interesting and catchy music, while still staying true to what you do. The problem with a lot of instrumental music, in my opinion, is that they tend to either noodle too much or extend songs just for the sake of extending them. Night Verses stayed true to what they knew and gave us a great taste of what to expect from them in the future.

Pros Outweigh The Cons

Overall I enjoyed this EP a lot; the songs are not only good by themselves but as a whole, the EP flows really well. I wish they would’ve added some more to the EP to really develop the sound they’ve introduced, but the pros outweigh the cons on this release without a doubt. If you’re into instrumental stuff, or even if you aren’t, I’d highly suggest at least giving this a listen.

Rating: 8/10

Catch Night Verses on tour with INTERVALS:

1/19 – Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s

1/20 – St. Louis, MO @ Fubar

1/21 – Wichita, KS @ Rock Island Live

1/23 – Albuquerque, NM @ The Jam Spot

1/24 – Phoenix, AZ @ Pub Rock

1/25 – Fullerton, CA @ Slidebar

1/30 – Los Angeles,CA @ 1720

2/2 – Portland, OR @ Analog Theatre

2/3 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theater

2/4 – Spokane, WA @ The Pin

2/5 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon

2/7 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater

2/9 – Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th Street Collective

2/10 – Ft. Worth, TX @ Rail Club

2/11 – Austin, TX @ Come & Take It Live

2/12 – Houston, TX @ Scout BAr

2/13 – New Orleans, LA @ Southport Music Hall

2/15 – Tampa, FL @ Orpheum

2/16 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade

2/17 – Greensboro, NC @ Blind Tiger

2/18 – Baltimore, MD @ SoundStage

2/19 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry at The Fillmore

2/20 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall

2/21 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theater

2/22 – Montreal, QC @ Cafe Campus

2/23 – Toronto, CA @ Opera House

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Where can I find this record?

The link below will take you to a multitude of different platforms(iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp, even Napster):

https://nightverses.lnk.to/copperwasp