30 Seconds to Mars - This Is War (2009)

It took four long years and some legal wrangling to get This Is War onto shelves. In that time, Virgin Records took 30 Seconds To Mars to court for failing to deliver the amount of records specifically set by their original record contract. Jared & brother/drummer Shannon Leto, and their cohorts, eventually won this battle and immediately afterward began work on This Is War. It begs the question: where does the time go between records? It took over three years to deliver the regrettably standard A Beautiful Lie, so what would come of the four years between that and this record?

The answer is, of course, an album that's been massively produced into, by far, the biggest mess of music the band has released to date. And it's still a 30 Seconds To Mars record that has all the characteristics and quirks we'd expect from the band, such as additions to the sound that the band, too caught up in rock & roll majesty and melodrama, don't realize have been staples for years. Interesting example of the band's perennial naivety: during a festival for fans, the band invited the audience to record their group vocals for use on the album, and huge group vocals have been a staggered rock standby since "Another Brick In The Wall." Surely they know this, and the audience from that night sounds decent (and excited), but they use this technique on song after song after song, and it lessens the impact a bit each time they do it. The process of recording it must have been lots of fun for all involved, but it's a bit of a one-dimensional trick to build an album around.  It's an example of a group so in love with putting all these glorious sounds together than little details like that are trivial.

But that's just who they are, and to expect much more from them at this stage is futile. What you want from a 30 Seconds To Mars record is the moments where they actually do get a firm grasp on the monumental hooks and riffs that sound like the most epic epic to ever epic, showcased well in the best pure rock song here, "Kings & Queens" (also notable for its fun, lengthy video featuring the band and hundreds of followers on bicycles). By ditching the more traditional modern rock structures of the last record, they can now simply expand on the first album, where they had their own brand of electronic theatrics that may have been over the top, but mostly entertaining.

This Is War, while decidedly filled with hard rock songs with a heavy leaning toward arena rock and glam, take a detour into genuine electronica. Take "Hurricane," which barely has a hint of genuine instruments on it, but the breathy Jared Leto gives an earnest vocal performance (when doesn't he?) that makes it as strong as any other song here. However, with its cracking drum machines and overpowering synths, it becomes the most glaring example of how the record is overproduced. Besides the group chants and vocals and electronics, there's strings, overdubs, tons of echo, "We Will Rock You"-like stomps and claps, and everything the band envisions belonging on all the biggest and brightest rock records. A byproduct of all this reaching for blockbuster moments is the album starting to lose steam towards the end, as all the tricks, the extended compositions that are rarely below the 5 minute mark, and all the lyrical content - veering back and forth throughout the album from a warrior persona to wallowing in self-absorbed, self-loathing agonizing - start to become a little old hat by the time "Vox Populi" comes on. There is, however, a gorgeous ballad named "Alibi" that comes late in the record that's more than worth the wait for.

No 30STM record comes without its little flaws, as the band overreach, over-emote and generally do a bunch of stuff that requires "over" being used as a prefix. Lyrically, they still spend a little too much time on the self-pity and some tragic turns of phrase. This won't matter too much if you're in the massive cult following the band has built up over the years, as it's more about the unique 30 Seconds To Mars experience. Even still, this is a lot of fun, and somewhat of a guilty pleasure, especially if you like your rock music feeling monumentally huge. And for better or for worse, this particular album is the fullest realization of the band's ambitions yet put on wax, showing off all their grandiose nature in all its glory. And, as on the debut, it boils down to the songs, which for the most part are actually pretty good, and even their little quirks don't really spoil the good time or anything. This Is War may be a little too much of, well, everything, but all this territory covered overflows with potential for the future, and at the very least it's the most accomplished 30 Seconds To Mars record to date, if not necessarily the best.



***1/2

30 Seconds to Mars - A Beautiful Lie (2005)

A Beautiful Lie comes out swinging with what sounds like Guitar Hero being played vigorously on a Nintendo, but it's all too brief until we get back into what we know and love 30 Seconds To Mars for - being a bit too wholehearted and honest to realize that many aspects of their sound are well-worn staples. Not that opener "Attack" isn't a good song. It's a great song, and the chorus of "run away, run away, I'll attack" excellently employs the champion persona that Jared Leto gladly incarnated on the self-titled debut. But once the quiet-intro-cum-sudden-loudness formula hits on the title track - or even the Chevelle-ish arrangement on "The Kill" which makes them sound more appropriate for FM radio than ever before, if the U2-like intro on "From Yesterday" wasn't enough - it becomes painfully clear that 30 Seconds To Mars either yearn for more awareness or are just too wide-eyed to know when they veer into cliches.

And as many cliches as there were on the debut, there was so much promise - a foursome who personify the modern rock mythos and actually have some good hooks to back it up, while making an abundance of electronics work for them and not against them. However, the album was only a moderate success, and it was passed off (maybe not unjustly) as celebrity indulgence. Surely unhappy with this reception, the band has pushed their sound a bit toward the sounds of the radio, except done 30 Seconds To Mars style. And it is a 30 Seconds To Mars record, but that little bit of integration means that the pleasures of the debut aren't so much in evidence, because while they aren't exactly another face in the crowd, they're well on their way.

It doesn't prevent the band from making good songs. Even the familiar intro on "From Yesterday" doesn't keep the song from being solid in its own right, and their cover of "Hunter" (originally by Björk) is pretty good and suits Jared Leto really well, though it's hard to screw that song up (note this song is only on certain copies of the album). And make sure you hear the copy with "Battle Of One," which is inexplicably a bonus track that probably betters the rest of the set. Still, another problem that drags the record down a bit is their lyrical immaturity. Too many songs rely on imagery, metaphors and melodramatic brooding that's been done and done for years by the time A Beautiful Lie was released.

This is a tight unit, able to convincingly pull everything off well, and even the lesser material here has a certain vehemence to it. Truthfully, there's no one song that one can point to and call a weak link. It just would have been a bit more respectable if they were confident enough to blaze some more trails here instead of marginalizing themselves. It worked, by the way - this record went platinum thanks to serious touring and the epic "From Yesterday" video.



**1/2

30 Seconds to Mars - s/t (2002)

I'm gonna preface this particular review by saying I have little to no familiarity with Jared Leto as an actor. No, I don't know what the hell "My So-Called Life" was, nor have I seen any of his movies. ("dude, he was in American Psycho, you haven't seen American Psycho?" I'll watch it, I'll watch it. Eventually. Look, I got a lot in the queue.) This is perfectly fine with me from a purely musical standpoint because I'd rather approach 30 Seconds To Mars as a band, not as an actor's side project. Besides, Keanu Reeves' band never got a devoted fanbase like these guys did.

That said, though, 30 Seconds To Mars does feel like a bit of a rock fantasy, which is well-evident on 30 Seconds To Mars. Every aspect of the sound, from the "space" themed concept of the songs to the melodramatic lyrics to the epic U2-via-Tool approach to rock (albeit processed through a wall of electronics) could feasibly be tossed off as Leto's own interesting method of living out his "rock god" fantasies, and that's precisely the guise he embodys every step of the way. Some of these songs sound like the audio equivalent of Criss Angel floating angelically above the Luxor (anyone remember that?).

The lyrics are an interesting matter. For those who are a bit distrustful of people utilizing lyrical cliches, steer clear. This record has a ton of them - telling a story from the point of view of someone named Mary, some religious imagery, songs called "Fallen" and "Welcome To The Universe," and lyrics like "I will disappear," and "cross the line, redefine". Lots of little things like that tend to sound more like theatrics than anything of real substance. Yet, on the other hand, 30 Seconds To Mars come across so guileless in their approach that, from Leto's overly breathy voice, all these lyrics are like gospel. This isn't necessarily a detriment to the overall impact, although it could certainly be considered naivety. Regardless of all of this, make no mistake: the record harnesses a power all its own, and it's the most interesting mixture of earnestness and radio rock you're likely to hear.

The sound of the band is certainly not far removed from Linkin Park in terms of approach, but these guys aren't alt-metal or nu-metal or anything like that. This is full-on stadium rock - there's a touch of grunge permeating many songs, and there's so much electronica circling each track that it sounds like a computer is eating the record alive, but it's stadium rock all the same, and on that level the band is very good. They don't stoop to relying on the processing of the compositions (such as the riffs being trimmed down to stop on a dime) to carry their songs, as they show that they're more than capable of just being a hard rock band as is, and delivering some enormous, planet-sized hooks delivered with all the ferocity of an apocalypse. "93 Million Miles" takes way too long to build up to its earth-shaking chorus, but once it does, it's all worth it. "Capricorn (A Brand New Name)" wallows a bit in dramatics, and as mentioned above is far from the only example of such, but it becomes somewhat of an anthem for reinventing oneself, and an awesome one at that, thanks to good riffs, great building to every chorus and some real vocal ferocity.

30 Seconds To Mars are urgent and serious about what they do, but if we gave points just for that, Limp Bizkit's The Unquestionable Truth would be the album of the decade. What matters is whether this dedication pays off, and even when they're far too over-the-top for their own good, these are pretty solid songs, and it points the way neatly toward their bigger ambitions later in the 2000s.



****