Friday, 27 January 2017

Sparta


This is Sparta. Sparta was a city-state in Ancient Greece known for its militaristic government led by Gerard Butler. Outdated jokes aside, Sparta was also a post-hardcore/alternative rock band that formed in El Paso, Texas in 2001. After the break-up of At The Drive-In, the band's former members wishbone-d into two halves. Vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez started prog rock band The Mars Volta, while the band's rhythm section became Spartans. They were guitarist/vocalist Jim Ward, bassist Paul Hinojos (who switched to guitar in Sparta), and drummer Tony Hajjar. After the band's first two records, Hinojos left the band and was replaced by Keeley Davis (who's actually playing guitar in At The Drive-In now in place of Jim Ward).

Naturally, with a similar line-up of At The Drive-In, Sparta definitely shares quite a bit in common with them. Though much more melodic, the dynamics, odd rhythms, and pulsating energy are all present here. Jim Ward's vocals take the forefront, which strike the exact balance between gruff delivery and catchy melody. Really the best thing to do is just listen to them, the songwriting is solid, and fans of good alternative rock will definitely dig it. Plus it does sound like a natural continuation to At The Drive-In, so they're a good fix until the new AtTDI album drops this year. Enjoy.

1. Mye
2. Cataract
3. Vacant Skies
4. Echodyne Harmonic (de-mix)

1. Cut Your Ribbon
2. Air
3. Mye
4. Collapse
5. Sans Cosm
6. Light Burns Clear
7. Cataract
8. Red Alibi
9. Rx Coup
10. Glasshouse Tarot
11. Echodyne Harmonic
12. Assemble The Empire

1. Guns Of Memorial Park
2. Hiss The Villain
3. While Oceana Sleeps
4. La Cerca
5. Breaking The Broken
6. Lines In Sand
7. End Moraine
8. Death In The Family
9. Syncope
10. Tensioning
11. Travel By Bloodline
12. P.O.M.E.
13. From Now To Never
14. Splinters
15. Farewell Ruins (Bonus Track)

1. Untreatable Disease
2. Crawl
3. Unstitch Your Mouth
4. Taking Back Control
5. Erase It Again
6. Atlas
7. The Most Vicious Crime
8. False Start
9. Weather The Storm
10. Red.Right.Return. (Straight In Our Hands)
11. Without A Sound
12. Translations

1. Class Blue
2. Cat Scream
3. Turquoise Dream
4. Spirit Away
5. Believe
6. Graveyard Luck
7. Dead End Signs
8. Miracle
9. Empty Houses
10. No One Can Be Nowhere

1. Kill The Man, Eat The Man
2. It Goes
3. Three Rivers
4. Hello Rabbit
5. Slip Away
6. Just Wait
7. Until The Kingdom Comes
8. Mind Over Matter
9. Carry On
10. Dark Red Quicksand
11. Spiders
12. True To Form

3 comments:

  1. You will find no bigger fan than I.. My buddy out in El Paso is friends with Jim. She says he is sort of hiatus now but wants to do something "someday"

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  3. Hi, the file upload for Porcelain is expired apparently. Hope you can put it back up, thanks!

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