Review Summary: Short and sweet
This EP is a gem in the melodic hardcore genre. Clocking in at right around nine minutes, I've Been Tearing Myself Apart is the shortest release
Capsize has ever made. However, the brevity of this album is no indicator of its quality, as the two songs on it are solid from start to finish.
Daniel Wand delivers an excellent vocal performance, lamenting an unraveled relationship and wrestling with self-hatred in his lyrics. While many heavy bands are all too eager to place all responsibility for their sadness and bad situations on society or those who have hurt them, Wand acknowledges the part that he has had to play in the grief that plagues him ("I fell face first/While I was over thinking/Cloud my mind again/Block it all away", "I'll take the blame/If it'll fix the bridge I burned that day"), though this does not mean that he absolves the other individual of guilt ("My own reflection won't look me in the eyes/Cause it knows who I could've been/But you killed him", "Another blow to the head/Slapped in the face by the things that you said").
The instrumentation on this record is nothing short of terrific. The guitars bring together a blend of dissonance and melody to emote a sense of gut-wrenching hopelessness, accompanied by some of the best drum fills I have ever heard in this genre. Additionally, Capsize avoids the ocean of quicksand that is breakdowns, opting for several tempo changes throughout the pair of songs that have the ability to get a crowd moving just as well without sacrificing musical complexity.
Overall, the production and performance on this EP are very well done, and I've Been Tearing Myself Apart is sure to go down as one of Capsize's finest releases.
