Vultures is Some Nerve’s follow up to their 2014 self-titled full-length, where they clearly showed off their mastery of crossover punk rock. With this new EP they have kept a lot of what made Some Nerve quite good, but they also have noticeably tried to expand their sound outside those realms go in a different direction.

Taking their sound on a more metal course and trying to prove that they could pull it off was a bit of risk for the band especially when they only have four tracks do it. “Isolation” is really just a dark and gloomy introduction instrumental track. Some Nerve started out their full-length the same way with “Trenches,” but it is interesting to say the least that they would start out a shorter release like this the same way.

The title track, which almost makes it to the five and a half minute mark, is where you can hear how much metal has come into Some Nerve’ s overall sound. There’s a lot of double kick on the bass drum and the guitars are swiftly palm muting the crunch-filled chord progressions. There’s even a bit of a slow break down and an insane guitar solo that is filled with pull offs, incredibly fast hammer-ons, and extremely high-pitched harmonics. It’s definitely not something you would typically hear on a crust punk to hardcore release, but nonetheless it is still impressive. That isn’t to say that the band has completely abandoned its sound though. They still kept many a lot of the characteristics they had on Some Nerve mostly notably their signature big, gang back-up vocals on songs like “Locusts” and title track. The lead vocals are angry, gruff, and take no prisoners.

Some Nerve really pushed the boundary between hardcore and metal with Vultures. It’s an interesting step from where they were with their self-titled record. Hopefully, this step won’t back fire with their future releases, but for now they seem to have avoided that altogether and put out a very solid EP.

You can check this EP out here.