Sparta

Wiretap Scars

I know I am entirely responsible for building my social media algorithms, but that doesn't mean they need to enable me and feed me the usual brain rot slop that will keep me mindlessly scrolling for hours on end. Very rarely does social media turn me on to actual, worthwhile things, but it does happen. Case in point, the time Sparta's performance of Cut Your Teeth on Conan graced my TikTok feed. I never really got in to At the Drive In, and the duo of Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodrígues-López often take up so much real estate in music conversation that I wasn't even aware that other members might've had projects of their own. When the band exploded into the first verse, I thought this was way too powerful for late night TV. Frontman Jim Ward's brand of vocal distortion felt like he was harbouring so much tension and pressure. The guitar riff was very angsty, and the constant switching between half and full time didn't necessarily smooth things over. Once the band arrived to the chorus, they still maintained its driving force, but Ward drops the barbed wire texture on his voice slightly to show that he also has quite a wonderful clean singing tone. The chorus was quite catchy, perfectly exemplifying the sweet and sour balance that makes post-hardcore music so appealing to me. I immediately added the debut album to my library and dove in.

After revisiting Wiretap Scars countless times over the course of this year, I found a lot to love about this album. It has some pretty stark dynamics; a lot of soft, melodic verses that often escalate into some pretty thunderous choruses. Two of my favourite examples of this were Sans Cosm and the closer, Assemble the Empire. The former is a very jovial cut which features some great performances and melodies from Ward. There's something about his inflection in the verses that I really enjoy; the way the end of his phrases trail off in a sort of laissez-faire fashion. The chorus is one of the loudest and vocally aggressive moments on the record, but I don't get the sense the harsh vocals are born of negative emotions. Assemble the Empire has a bit of a lengthy intro that features some cool delayed guitar lines, but when that song finally quicks in to gear, I feel nothing but elation thanks to Ward's triumphant yells.

There's some mellower cuts that I thought went over pretty nicely as well. Collapse has a fairly forlorn vibe, but the chorus sounds comfortingly sweet and hopeful. I really like Ward's vocal melody as well as that inflection that I already spoke of on Sans Cosm. Light Burns Clear has one of the prettiest intros on the record as dual clean guitars chime harmoniously together. The verses are somber, however, Ward's performance and a faintly distorted guitar does add a little warmth. I'm not super fond of the choruses as I feel the heaviness doesn't quite match what the song is asking for, although I still find it to be a decent track. There were two mellower moments that I thought paled in comparison to other tracks; the spacey Cataract and the piano-led Echodyne Harmonic. Not terrible tracks - I've certainly heard worse - but I didn't find them to be as engaging as the rest of the material. With those two tracks being the only weak points, Wiretap Scars is a pretty exceptional post-hardcore record. I may have to dive into more of their discography.