Sparta - Light Burns Clear

Fan the flames to the landslide. Crown yourself in the wake.

Album: The Wiretap Scars [debut album]
Genre: Post Hardcore, Emo
Album Release: August 13th 2002
Length: 4.25
Producer: Jerry Finn
Vocalist: Jim Ward [age 26]
Label: Dreamworks Records

Official Audio

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: 475,000 +
YouTube Music: 55,000 +

Credits

Details

• The band had previously released an EP called 'Austere'.
  
• Post hardcore band At the Drive-In split in 2001. Three members of the band formed Sparta in 2002, while the other two would form The Mars Volta.
  
• After six years and three albums At the Drive-In broke into the mainstream. Their sound was a post-hardcore that was loud, frantic and unapologetic while the pop-punk that filled MTV was a suburban noise complaint that ended with the bands begging police not to tell their parents and promising to keep the sound down.
  
  While the pop-punks complained about wanting to leave their hometowns ATDI raged about the murder of female factory workers in Mexico. They made music with almost no regard for the casual listener, the second half of their track '300Mhz' is sang almost entirely in German. Eventually, through refining their craft and slowly building a fanbase, their stuff would sit by side on the same music channels and on the same magazine covers as Good Charlotte and the other pop punks. The band had a right to be proud. They made the music they wanted to make without compromise. The good times wouldn't last.
  
  In 2001, after years of relentless touring the band split. Their breakthrough album had only come in 2000. The guys had spent years on the road and it led to some personal animosities and addictions to heroin. The fallout wasn't pretty. Vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala said the band was holding him back. He wanted to go beyond punk in an altogether different direction. Together with Omar Rodriguez they formed The Mars Volta and started making prog rock. The remaining three members, the ones without afros and drug addictions, formed Sparta and continued the legacy of the post-hardcore At the Drive-In.
  
  The chorus of 'Light Burns Clear' goes "fan the flames of disaster, crown yourself in the wake" which is likely a reference to Cedric and Omar and how they positioned themselves as the creative force behind ATDI. It continues "we play this disaster, fanfare, fanfare, liar." Cedric had given many interviews after the break-up "fanfare, fanfare" stating that he wasn't happy with the artistic differences between the two factions in the band "we’d get ridiculed for playing Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, dub music and Talk Talk on the tour van stereo."
  
  This upset the former ATDI guitarist, and singer of Sparta, Jim Ward. To make matters worse, Jim had a cousin, Jeremy Ward, who went on tour with The Mars Volta, as their sound manipulator. Jeremy wouldn't come home. He died of a heroin overdose while touring and his death hit Jim hard.
  
  At the Drive-In would eventually reunite and even released a new album in 2017, but it would be without Ward. When asked about the reunion Ward said "I haven't got much to say about anything except with songs, which I will continue to make and release".
  
  
  
  Artork