30 Seconds To Mars return this week with this new album This Is War which seems to draw from frontman Jared Leto's deepest secrets. The bands' third studio album has a very almost somber tone that is both dark yet very relating to a very alone or lost feeling. The band enlists the services of producer Flood (aka Mark Ellis) (U2, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins) which only further capitalizes on the huge atmosphere this album seems to radiate. Solid hit after hit appear on this new record and while it may not be groundbreaking or something new, it has appeal enough to keep me interested with something new this late into the 2009 release season.
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Great record. People will hate it of course. It's Jared Leto.
San Luis Obispo, CA
it is pretty darn good
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the only thing that really turns me off is the fans singing, at first it sounds pretty cool and an original idea, but it's all over the album, layers and layers of fans doing the oooouuuhh ooouhhhh's... other than that, it's pretty good.
Minnesota
Their debut, I fell in love with. Last album, didn't get into it initially, but slowly grew to love it over time. This album... I can hardly make it through. There's maybe a song or two on here that feels memorable. The rest is crap. I think they dropped the ball on this one, especially after two strong releases.
West Haven, CT
Terrible band.
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Drummondville, Quebec
I really enjoyed their previous record. I took a look at their new music videos and stopped it after 10 seconds. It was that bad.
Dubuque
I agree with Rick. This new album is utterly boring.
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Really? btw the video for kings and queens is amazing, great photography, I think I like it more than the song, pure photography and not a single special effect (a little less Leto and it would be perfect).
At first I didn't like the album, it's not meant to break any boundaries (I can live without the Kanye song) and I believe if you take it "as is" it's not a bad listen, hopefully the fans singing won't be present on their next album if there is one... you can really feel the presence of Flood, it's not a bad thing if you like his work.
Milwaukee, WI
I've taken the same path as Rick with this band, which has lead to major disappointment with This Is War. The band was much more focused on rock before this release, with electronic touches. Now they are trying to replicate something you would hear from Depeche Mode, which I am sure is the influence of Flood.
I do really enjoy Night of the Hunter. I think Hurricane would be epic if it wasn't completely ruined by the robot known as Kanye West. The rest is awful.
Certain parts are growing on me, but they lost what they had when they first came out. They went with spacey themes and just focused on writing solid rock tracks. Their second disc took away the spacey themes, but still focused on rock. This one abandons everything they did on the last 2 albums, but has King and Queens as the first single to fool people into thinking this is just a more friendly version of the band. It's not. It's a ton of grand ideas that never work.
It was all downhill from their "video" for From Yesterday. That's when the band was allowed to be as pretentious as possible and it leaked over into this entire album.
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Baltimore, MD
Does the album version of Hurricane have Kanye on it? The album streaming at the AOL Listening Party doesn't have the Kanye version of Hurricane if you think that you will fancy it more.
But yea, couple decent songs...other than that, i'm over these guys...agree with rusty about the crowd sounds in, well, almost every song
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Rick & I don't always agree on stuff, but I have to whole-heartedly support his statement on this (which is odd, cause I'm usually totally with RustyCage). I really really really liked the first two albums and yes I hated they became MTV darlings with the 2nd album, butI won't deny loving it. This new album made me wary with the new single - sounded like they wanted to go an emo version of cock-rock for stadiums & singalongs. It didn't have even an ounce of the punch that the other albums did. I still had hope since singles tend to be the most polarizing tracks, but sadly it turns out that the rest of the album didn't do much for me either. There is a lot of potential stashed here & there, but it feels like they had some good ideas that were pasted together with half-hearted BS that was sure to win mass appeal. The group choral things, maybe good idea on paper, horrible in execution - annoying as shit and it happens WAY too much. I'm not a Kanye fan, but I've not liked guest stars before and have been able to admit their contributions were good. His on here? So out of place. Not happy with this release.
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Milwaukee, WI
Good to know, maybe I'll check the track out the AOL stream and see if removing Kanye makes it as good as I think it can.
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Decatur, Alabama
mmm... the debut was fantastic (comparatively, of course)
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Illinoise
personally, i think jared leto is a great actor. however, this cd just was too long in the making and not that amazing. might grow on me too.
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Pittsburgh, PA
Does he do any acting any more or does he focus solely on 30 Seconds to Mars?
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