It is the only release by The Receiving End of Sirens to feature Casey Crescenzo, who joined the band in January 2004, replacing Ben Potrykus, and left in May 2006.

Bassist Brendan Brown and guitarist Alex Bars formed The Receiving End of Sirens during their first year of college at Northeastern University in 2003.

[1][2] The pair, who first started playing music together in their high school band Settle for Nothing,[3] soon brought in guitarist Nate Patterson, drummer Andrew Cook,[2] and vocalist Ben Potrykus.

[1] In November 2003, Potrykus, uncomfortable with signing to major label Atlantic Records and with the prospect of abandoning his studies at Emerson College, left the band,[4] and Casey Crescenzo was hired as his replacement in January 2004.

[16] The lyrics, predominantly written by Brown and Crescenzo, with some help from Cook,[17] use wordplay and alliteration[9] to tackle the themes of love, prison break, war, masturbation, the departure of Potrykus, and the tale of Romeo and Juliet.

[14] The pop punk-indebted "The Evidence" is followed by "The War of All Against All,"[14] which opens with a tribal drum pattern before shifting to a chorus section of changing rhythms that crescendo to the end.

[11] The background chorus, guitar octaves, and slow percussion at the end of "The War of All Against All" provide a clean segue into "... Then I Defy You, Stars,"[9] which is in turn followed by the piano-driven, slow-building track "Intermission,"[14] and the hard rock number "This Armistice.

[9] The up-tempo piano track "Flee the Factory" ends in a jazzy interlude that segues into the opening synthesizer riff of "Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Crescenzo directed the video for "This Armistice," and Brown called his former school principal, who in turn contacted the Recreation Department, to get permission to film in Somers.

[40] Cody Bonnette of As Cities Burn filled Crescenzo's role for three months,[41] and was replaced by Brian Southall of Boys Night Out,[42] formerly the band's touring manager.

[43] Between the Heart and the Synapse was released on vinyl in 2010, with a bonus track titled "Weightless Underwater"[44] and new artwork from Matt Adams, who was inspired by the original while he was in college.

"[14] AllMusic reviewer Bret Love wrote that it was "a pretty rare thing" to discover an act with an original sound, while proclaiming the band's genre-bending as "an engaging aural assault that is uniquely their own.

"[11] He complimented producer Matt Squire for doing an "impressive job of capturing" the guitar work in a "crisp, clean mix that ensures not a single detail goes unnoticed.