Capsule
Blue
Robotic Empire
The shape of color to come
I’ll admit it: When I first heard Capsule’s new record, I thought it was some disjointed screamo rehash with nothing much going on. Do not make the same mistake. Blue moves past screamo or thrash or whatever other genre into something that is definitively Capsule’s own sound.
With only a couple of releases under their belt, the Miami trio has developed a great formula. Maniacally playing with and against each other, they demand your attention to detail. A fluid combination of cross-eyed songwriting and methodical execution, the band’s precision is all that keeps the tangle of riffs and time changes from giving you vertigo. Their background scream-alongs add an extra layer of racket without taking away from the rock. Yes, there are undeniable hooks all throughout Blue, but the band wields them viciously. The songs rarely make it up into the three-minute mark, and waste little time making their point before moving on. A nice addition is “Determinal,” which starts out spastic, but moves into an eight-minute dirge that doesn’t let you breathe, sucking you into the undertow.
But what you want to know is, what do these guys really sound like? Think Refused with autism and pyromania. Think Planes Mistaken for Stars with a bag of meth and a graphing calculator. Or just accept that the only way of knowing is to pick up Capsule’s Blue as soon as you can. —Shane Mehling
