Sparta – Wiretap Scars
(Dreamworks)

The fact that At The Drive-In never got to record a follow up to their major label debut Relationship Of Command is one of the bigger disappointments in recent years of music. A band like ATDI doesn’t come around too often, and as far as I’m concerned they deserved all the hype they got (although I’m still not too sure how the mainstream audiences would have filed them in their music collections). Regardless, every cloud has a silver lining, and in hindsight the break up of At The Drive-In has allowed each of the band members to grow and continue their own musical evolution with a freedom they would never have known had they still been together as one unit.

The debate will rage on about whether it is Sparta or The Mars Volta who are the true heirs to the At The Drive-In throne, and at the moment I can offer no clear answer to that question. I will, however, point out that it takes one great band to be split in half and still produce two other solid and innovative bands that are still better than just about anything else in rock music today.

Sparta, admittedly, are perhaps the less innovative of the two, and yet their first full length release, “Wiretap Scars” will no doubt surprise many people with its brilliance as the band contains the 3 less prominent, non-Afro sporting ATDI members. Wiretap Scars proves that Jim, Paul and Tony (along with their newly recruited friend Matt) feel quite at home when it comes to writing their own songs, and you can tell that there is a real chemistry at work here.

So exactly how much does this album sound like At The Drive-In? Well, Jim’s vocals will remind you of ATDI right off the bat, but contrary to what some people have said, he isn’t purposely trying to sound like ATDI’s frontman Cedric. Many people do not realize that Jim sang backup vocals quite often in At The Drive-In’s songs, which is why his voice sounds so familiar. Although he does not have quite the same vocal range as Cedric, his voice does have a great texture, particularly when he screams, and other times it floats over the music gently. He carries the songs quite well.

Wiretap Scars contains 3 of the 4 songs from Sparta’s Austere EP, and also 3 other songs that were made available on the internet as early demos. Among these early demos was the song Cut Your Ribbon, which stood out as one of my favourites, and is a great choice as the album’s first single. It makes you realize that Jim and Paul were probably more responsible for some of the heavier At The Drive-In riffs from songs like Catacombs, Invalid Litter Dept, and One Armed Scissor.

Not every Sparta song is as abrasive and heavy as Cut Your Ribbon however, in fact it may well be the most aggressive song on the album. Songs like Air, Collapse, and Light Burns Clear, which are more commonplace, execute a progression from delicate and dreamy to explosive and visceral (and back again).

There are also touches of experimentation in Sparta’s sound: bits and pieces of keyboards, piano and electronic drums scattered throughout songs such as Cataract and Echodyne Harmonic, but they are still much more of a straight-ahead rock band than At The Drive-In or The Mars Volta. There isn’t a lot of quirky, guitar noodling in their songs (that was Omar’s department in ATDI), instead they opt for a thicker, layered guitar sound, with some occasional digital delay effects thrown in.

Now that I think about it, this album actually has a lot of similarities to the latest release from another recent Dreamworks signee, Jimmy Eat World.

While Wiretap Scars does not quite have the feel of a masterpiece, it is definitely a pleasant surprise and makes for an excellent record nonetheless. Fans of At The Drive-In should not miss out, and fans of aggressive guitar-based rock in general just may find that Sparta are their new favourite band. — Sean