Review Summary: Sparta's third full length falls flat on its face, sounding uninspired and boring and failing to create any sort of atmosphere or mood, yet still coming just short of mediocrity
Every time I listen to Sparta, I feel quite conflicted. On one hand, I do want to like them, especially because they came from At The Drive-In, which is probably my favorite post-hardcore band and has been for quite some time now. But then, when I try to listen to
Threes, I can’t help but feel completely disappointed. Sure, their sound follows somewhat in the vein of At The Drive-In’s more mellow works, but it seems to be inexplicably lacking something to push it to the point where I can actually enjoy it.
On first listen, Threes is unfortunately quite the snooze fest. Now, that has been an issue with many other albums the first few times I’ve given them a listen, but even after listening to this album multiple times, I still am not grasped by it at all. One of the main causes of said boringness is without a doubt the similarity that seems to pervade the majority of the songs on the album. Every song, with the obvious exception of
Taking Back Control, a politically charged anthem with a sh
it kicking bass line and a hook-laden chorus, really falls into the proverbial death trap of sounding like the rest of the album entirely too much and comes off as tiresome and uninspired.
That isn’t to say that the members of Sparta are untalented though. Tony Hajjar puts up a great performance on the drums, laying a solid but varied foundation for most of the songs. Some notable standouts include the near arena-rock drumming of
Taking Back Control (which is really the only great song on the album) and
Weather the Storm, where he is pretty much the only member of the band keeping the otherwise boring song from being lost in its slumber.
Jim Ward and new addition Keeley Davis (formerly of now-defunct, indie heavy weights Engine Down and Denali) put up a decent showing on guitar, at least on a few songs, but never really go beyond being merely good. Unfortunately, the same seems to apply to bassist Matt Miller, who really only has one standout moment on the whole album, the aforementioned
Taking Back Control. Sure, Davis adds an ever more present indie-influence (courtesy of his former band, the indie sensation Denali), which is exceptionally prevalent on
Red.Right.Return. (Straight in Our Hands) and
Transitions, but never really hits the mark. For the most part, aside from a few key highlights, the music ends up always coming up short and leaving something to be desired.
Jim Ward’s vocals are sort of a hit-or-miss deal, where he either sounds brilliantly on his mark, or ends up stumbling while trying entirely too hard to sound like Bono (see
Atlas, and all of the other tracks that sound like
Atlas, for evidence). Unfortunately, the moments of sheer U2-vocal-fellatio seem to outweigh the moments when he comes off as truly original, stretching his meek tenor to the breaking point before bringing it back to nearly a whisper, as is evidenced in
Weather the Storm or
The Most Vicious Crime, possibly his most dynamic vocal performance on the record.
Overall, Sparta’s Threes falls tragically short of being good. It sounds boring and uninspired at times, and aside from a few key stand-outs, probably isn’t worthy of really anyone’s attention. It fails to create any sort of real atmosphere or mood, and ends up either sounding like a more amplified version of Denali fronted by Bono, or sounding like a wimpier and more down-to-earth version of At The Drive-In. Unfortunately, as much as I’ve tried to enjoy the album, Threes just leaves me unfulfilled and sleepy, and while I can’t fault it for effort, I’ll just throw on
Relationship of Command and be instantly reminded of what is so great about post-hardcore.
Overall Score: 2/5
Reccomended Tracks
Taking Back Control
Red.Right.Return (Straight in Our Hands)
Weather the Storm
