One of my favorite things to do is take a day and listen through a bands entire catalog. Yesterday, I was looking for something to listen to and out of the corner of my eye I saw my Sparta collection. So naturally I grabbed all three albums loaded them up in the stereo and proceeded to emerse myself in Sparta’s catalog. Their first album Wiretap Scars has already been established here on Audioeclectica as an unsung masterpiece. Their second album Porcelain is a somber album that takes a little while to really get into. But the album that really wound up striking a chord with me was Threes.

All the songs on this album present a refreshing sense of the band. Vocalist Jim Ward admits he was heavily influenced by Radiohead recording Threes. In the softer parts of the songs you can hear Thom Yorke in the vocals. Whatever it is he is singing, it’s always very passionate. One thing I noticed about Threes is the atmosphere of the album. It’s not the ambience that made Wiretap Scars special, but instead it brings out a new kind of ambience full of gloominess, suffering and other emotional pain. Songs like “Untreatable Disease,” “Crawl,” “Unstitch Your Mouth,” “Erase It Again,” and “The Most Vicious Crime,” all fall into that solemn category.  The first single “Taking Back Control,” is a classic heavy song for Sparta. Other stand out tracks include “Atlas,” “False Start,” “Red.Right.Return,” and closing track “Translations.”

If there is one critique about the album as a whole is that the production is a little too slick. In a way you can tell that the producer tried to expand upon the production sound that helped to make Wiretap Scars sound so good, but used too much compression. Sparta would go on to take a very long break after Threes. They reunited in 2012 for a short tour and also released a new song called “Chemical Feel,” which is equal parts Wiretap era and Threes. Sparta, while only having three albums, really left a quiet mark on the times of the early 2000’s expansion of post-hardcore. I really feel like they still have enough in them for one more solid album. Granted that will all have to come after this current At The Drive-In reunion. So take a listen to Sparta’s Threes and you’ll hear what I’m talking about.

 

Sparta-Threes:

 

Sparta- Chemical Feel: