Posted by Dwayne C on 3rd December 2009
1

30 Seconds To Mars – This Is War (2009) Album Review


Looks like 30 Seconds To Mars have pulled a Muse on us and released an absolutely horrible album, probably one the worst follow up albums I have ever heard, and one of the worst albums ever released by these guys in comparison to their previous two releases.

This Is War is 30 Seconds To Mars’ third full-length and is full of could have’s, mishaps, wtf’s and in no way comes anywhere near the sound of their previous release A Beautiful Lie released in 2005 which in my opinion was an absolutely amazing album.

Right from the get-go, This Is War disappoints. The short intro track “Escape” is boring, drags on far too long and gives me the impression 30 Seconds To Mars just didn’t give a fuck when writing this one. It even gets worse, with 30 Seconds To Mars sounding like they asked Muse to write the entire album for them with leftover material from The Resistance thrown in to fill the CD.

This album is like a bad storm, it starts out bad and keeps on getting worse as it picks up power and continues over time. Even the inclusion of Kanye West on the track Hurricane doesn’t help 30 Seconds To Mars, not that I would expect the addition of Kanye West to any song would help in anyway whatsoever. I am all for progression and don’t think they should have made another A Beautiful Lie, but this album is more of a regression if anything.

Jared Leto is no doubt an amazing vocalist, and an equally amazing songwriter. But this album just doesn’t capture my attention, and doesn’t feel like he tried his best to write something decent. It might just be me, but this album in terms of production, song-writing and originality comes nowhere near anything else ever written by these guys. This album is no way to make a comeback after being absent for nearly 5 years.

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    1 Response

  1. John Brack says:
    December 3, 2009 at 11:41 am

    Hmm, you might be onto to something here. I am a pretty big 30 Seconds To Mars fan. I have all of their albums (including This Is War) and have seen them play live a few times as well, they put on a really great show.

    They worked on this album for 2 years, and I know they tried their best. I read that they poured everything they had into this album, and having overcome all of the past obstacles with their previous record label trying to rip them off, I think this album is pretty damn good.

    I do however agree that this album feels a little forced, it is literally quite sad to see a band I think of so highly release something like this.

    This Is War contains a little too much ambience for my liking, there are still the hard rock riffs that 30 Seconds To Mars subjected us to on previous stuff in some songs, but it has been layered with beautiful string arrangements and quirky space effects.

    I give this album a 5 out of 10 for trying, and hoping that it will grow on me the more that I listen to it.

    Jared Leto is talented vocalist, fuckin’ ay he is. But the rest of the band are incredibly talented at what they do too.

    Keep it up, I thought this was a straight to the point review, I’ll check out some of your other reviews in the future definitely.

    Thanks.

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