Probably my favorite Champs album out of their entire discography, 1997's III is indisputably a hallmark of the instrumental Metal aesthetic; hell, these guys pretty much laid the groundwork for the entire ""instruMetal"" scene that has spread throughout the underground over the past couple of years, all with a lineup of two perpetually dueling guitars and drums. Their dismissal of bass didn't detract from The Champ's overall heaviness one iota, either. III was the band's debut full lengther, following a sackload of 7""s and cassette releases, and saw the band adopting the C4AM95 moniker for 70 minutes of insanely catchy, complex metal with math-rock chops to die for. Tracks like ""The Trees"" and ""Lee Tom"" come off like Carcass' Heartwork reconstituted as bombastic indie anthems, while ""Dale Bozzio"" almost sounds like Sonic Youth gone casio metal. ""Silent Night, Friendly Night"", ""Now Is The Winter Of Our Discoteque"" all weld soaring metal shreddery to infectious 8-bit electronica and essentially predate everything from Genghis Tron to Chromelodeon to the classic Nintendo jammery of groups like The Advantage. Elsewhere, the Champs mutate Bay Area thrash metal into convoluted (but no less catchy) battle soundtracks. A totally crucial album, still way ahead of it's time. Imagine Ride The Lightning era metallica, Iron Maiden, Carcass, Don Cabellero, and Trans Am mixed together into an unstoppable anthemic metal machine. Pretty freaking amazing, especially when you realize that the band is made up of former members of DC emo groundbreakers Nation Of Ulysses.