30 Seconds to Mars

By Nick Laugher, Staff Contributor

Grade: D

Between the auto-tuned punk screams, the stock photo of a menacing tiger on the album cover, and the hawk screeches littering the songs, it’s hard to pick just one aspect of the newest 30 Seconds to Mars album, This is War, to ridicule.
The third full-length from Jared Leto (Claire Danes’ pseudo-badass punk crush from My So Called Life) is supposedly a concept album and rock opera. The only thing unifying the 12 songs on this album is a stunning essence of cheesy, generic angst.
Beginning with the opening track “Escape”, and prevailing throughout the album, Leto screams six or seven key lines of tired, cliché sentiment about an ambiguous “war” that is not only approaching and currently being fought but that apparently has already been won: “I do believe in the light / Raise your hands into the sky / The fight is done / The war is won.”
Musically, the album is a cross between My Chemical Romance, post-apocalyptic Nickelback, and flamboyant ‘80s synth rock with a side serving of chanting crowds, military drums and Kanye West. Yes, Kanye West, who mumbles some almost inaudible vocals and lays down a cookie-cutter beat for the track “Hurricane” in such a half-assed way it feels like he’s ashamed.
With This is War, Leto and his minions transcend the world of benign alt-emo and adolescent TV drama to martyr themselves as the thunderous, auto-tuned rally cry for the 14 year old troops.