2009-12-24
A much tamed, elevator-version,
Nine Inch Nails comes to mind with all the whispers and layering in "Escape", the intro to Thirty Seconds To Mars's 3
rd full-length. "This Is War" continues to walk on the same safe paved path where these dudes simply cannot, not seem to wish to, escape those nausea causing MTV2 choruses.
This time around,
30 Seconds to Mars (30STM in short) are completing the turn taken from the first to the second album. While they did move forward from their fine debut alternative rock self-titled to their overrated emo rock 2nd effort "A Beautiful Lie" with "This Is War" it might have been better not complete a full by-the-book turn and actually drift slightly sideways. Jared Leto, Shannon Leto and Tomo Miličević are moving to fourth base, sure, but in an extra careful 3-condoms-on-each-member manner.
As the album unfolds, guitars take a step back and allow Jared's soaring vocals every bit of space on "Kings and queens" and its title track, while winking towards seemingly popular acts such as Angels and Airwaves mixed in with U2 ("Close to the Edge" pun intended?) meets My Chemical Romance, only there are no hooks. No actual guitar leads, no over the top vocals but a somewhat forced fuse of a fan-choir, no standout bass lines, no impressive drum cuts - nothing that is musically memorable over time other than "that album I got for Christmas once…" and it's gimmick cover art's 2000 different faces; including submissive fans' submissions, Kat Von D (of 'Miami Ink' fame), Bam Margera ('Jackass', 'Viva la Bam' and spinoffs fame), Conan O'Brien ('The Tonight Show') and others.
Ambivalence is what this synth-lead, overall well composed effort evokes mostly. For starters, it attempts to create progressive synth-rock in grand measures, reaching for M83's and Archive's (especially on "Stranger in a strange land" and "Vox Populi") well-deserved hypes and quality. Frontman Jared Leto even went as far as saying it is not a rock opera but a conceptual spiritual piece, and contains optimistic lyrics.
Optimistic lyrics translates, sadly, into Arena-Emo just like U2 and The Killers (who's influences is more than present) translate from rock bands to pompous bombastic hot air balloons live on stage in some random stadium where music as an art form is no longer relevant.
So, 30STM went through al the trouble of a Virgin Records multi-million dollar lawsuit (only to sign with its parent EMI label later), held 'The Summit" (a pre-album listening session live show, where parts of were recorded and used for the album), hired two Grammy-award winning producers Flood (worked with Depeche Mode, The Smashing Pumpkins, U2, The Killers etc.) & Steve Lillywhite (also worked with U2, Morrisey, Dave Matthewss Band etc.) to smoothen the recordings' edges into conformism's welcoming embrace, went all the way to Hawaii to played around with Kanye West (who's version of "Hurricane" didn't make the cut), and ultimately worked overall for 2 over years – yet still, ended up with a piece that's just a few inches short of getting on the extreme rollercoaster in music's theme park.
Don't get this the wrong way – "This is War" can easily get on most rides as many times as 30STM may like to and rather enjoy that part of the theme park. It's just a matter of what separates the men from the boys. It is the difference between being 'above average' to being 'hung'.
Ofer Vayner
