There are as many ways to create a following for yourself as there are bands and ...

OK, we're not fooling anyone here. There are, quite unfortunately, only a handful of avenues for bands to create a name for yourself in the music world. Some do it by jumping on the bandwagon and tailoring their sound to trends and fashions, and some outright copy successful acts. Others do it simply by doing their thing and let their music speak for itself, some win over the bloggers with a gimmicky debut and pushy publicist and still others do it by single-minded persistence, relentlessly polishing their chops.

Sparta's one of the latter types. The band's aptly titled third album, Threes finds the act finally shedding the post-hardcore baggage its carried since the great At the Drive-In schism that birthed it alongside neo-prog weirdoes The Mars Volta. Threes isn't a surprising album in the least. It simply continues the trajectory away from post-hardcore artiness toward straightforward hard rock, welding the two directions together with the spark of sheer willpower to do so.

Threes doesn't so much straddle the worlds of post-hardcore and that post-millennial heavy-alt-rock sound as much as it shoves them together and forces them to get along. After three albums, Sparta's finally worked the kinks out of the system, making Threes its most easy-to-swallow effort -- either a disappointing or exciting development depending upon what drew you to the band's last effort, 2004's Porcelain (Geffen). "Crawl" takes the arena-rock anthemics of everyone from U2 to Bloc Party and applies it to the post-hardcore formula, as sharp, angular guitars reach soaring heights, compelled by front man Jim Ward's confident delivery. "The Most Vicious Crime," with bursts of tom rhythms that lurk behind creepy, minimal guitar leads, captures that sense of budding pressure bands like Fugazi and Hot Water Music perfected years ago, but ties it to shimmering pop choruses. "Taking Back Control" and "False Start" exhibit a bit of post-hardcore muscle, with churning rhythms and slicing guitars, though Sparta hides them behind soft production to take away their bite.

If post-hardcore was about dynamics and pacing as much as guitar tones and maintaining punk's edge in a new setting, Threes maintains its At the Drive-In roots. Ward leads his act through songs that patiently work their way through low-key intros and simmering, though mild-mannered verses to explode into choruses that fall just a few notches short of epic.

It's been hard work for Sparta, escaping the shadow of At the Drive-In and, at least figuratively, competing against The Mars Volta. It's been even more difficult to bang out a sound that held its roots firmly to its chest as the act struggled for mainstream recognition. With Threes, Sparta finally does it, fusing its mainstream/underground ethos into something new.