SPARTA • s/t • LP

Dine Alone Records

White Vinyl =  Exclusively at Indie Recordstores', limited to 1.200 copies worldwide

There’s no question about whether it’s the profiles of Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López that were biggest to emerge out of seminal El Paso post-hardcore band At the Drive-In.

Partly, that’s down to the pair’s flamboyance—both musical and in terms of stage presence—but also in large part because of their work together with The Mars Volta over the years after the dissolution of their first band. And while they don’t not deserve all that attention, you have to feel slightly for Jim Ward, who certainly made vital contributions to that band’s output in those early years. He founded Sparta after At the Drive-In called it quits (the first time, in 2001), but after three albums—not to mention one of the best covers of Jawbreaker’s “Kiss the Bottle”—the band kind of just faded away without fanfare after the release of 2006’s third LP, Threes.

It took 14 years for Sparta, in somewhat altered form, to return with 2020’s fourth album Trust the River, but they’re already back again with its follow-up. And although now just a two-piece comprised of Ward and bassist Matt Miller, Sparta is very much a full-band album.