Life is full of tough choices, and when Nineties post-punk prodigies At the Drive In divorced, fans were left with just two. Choice one was to become a devout follower of proggy ATDI offshoot Mars Volta.The second was to err on the side of Sparta, the other band to rise from the ashes of ATDI, employing ATDI’s hooky, guitar-crazed formula and adding heavy doses of angst and emotional depth to their sound. Last night at New York City’s Irving Plaza, a packed crowd of hungry Sparta fans justified their choice.

Riding the release of their latest album,Threes (which dropped on Tuesday), Sparta reclaimed their position as a power force in alternative rock after experiencing line-up turmoil that’s plagued them since 2004. Taking the smoke-filled stage under a rain of yellow, red, blue and white lights, singer/guitarist Jim Ward shredded through a mixed bag of tunes drawing from the group’s three albums.While Threes cuts “Atlas,” and “Unstitch Your Mouth” relied heavily upon ethereal guitar effects, old favorites like “Cut Your Ribbon” and “Light Burns Clear” jumped ferociously to the forefront. With heavy drop D power chords, powerful backing vocals (courtesy of new guitarist Keeley Davis), and delayed pinpoint riffs, both Sparta’s old tunes and new material shined.

Although mostly unfamiliar with the tracks from Threes, the black-clad crowd reacted with gaping smiles and high-fives to the fresh and unconventional song formats. Structured less around vocal-heavy verses that build to vicious choruses and veering toward more digestible anthems and linear volumes, Threes illustrates a slight change for the band.

“It would be virtually impossible to explain what has happened in the last year,” Ward told the crowd, presumably referring to the death of his cousin and Mars Volta keyboardist/sound manipulator Jeremy Ward from a heroin overdose. “There were some low points and I think without this — the music and the band — I’d be dead.” His pronouncement was met with uncontrollable cheering — the perfect rock & roll catharsis — as the band tore into another song.