Thirty Seconds To Mars – This Is War – Reviewed
Right off the bat, ‘This Is War’ is not just an album you put on, it is an entire world you step inside and its grandeur is evident from the beginning.
It starts out with weapons aimed and ready to fire. There’s definitely a strong sense of purpose in ‘This Is War’ and as a whole, while listening to it, It made me feel like some kind of warrior and those songs members of my army, the lyrics my arsenal. I swear, I felt like I was in the midst of this epic battle and I needed to recognize the urgency around me.
I love how well equipped it is. The lyrics are some of their most beautiful yet there seems to be a fight throughout the entire album and I don’t quite think it’s intended to be so literal, instead its symbolic, to me at least. Fight for your life, what you want from it, how you want to live it, your soul, your brothers and sisters… Rise up, conquer,love, desire, suffer and rally…. I think the intent of the album can be heard in “Vox Populi”. That song to me captures the essence of the message in ‘This Is War’, essentially announcing that “this IS a call to arms.”
“
Rise up, conquer,love, desire, suffer and rally
”
This Is War wants to make you a survivor and show you how capable you and I and we can all be. It won’t just stand there and let you be a victim. It is bigger than life and theatrical and elegantly intense. Some of you may not know this, but Thirty Seconds To Mars let some of their fans participate in the process and making of ‘This Is War’ and I love that! I love hearing that! I love that this entire album is blanketed in that personal experience.
I’ll say this, I would never miss seeing these songs performed live. In fact, the album is just somewhere for the songs to call home before being set out into the world at a Thirty Seconds To Mars show. Way to raise the bar for yourselves boys! It’s great. A really grandiose, bountiful and vastly inspiring album and the imagery that it evokes is an added bonus, an alternate universe inside our heads where we get to be the hero.
I totally recommend ‘This Is War’ and I recommend you invest all your senses into it, then, create something from it. What does it make YOU feel? That’s the fun part.
- This Is War
- 100 Suns
- Alibi
- Stranger In A Strange Land
Download it now on iTunes.
Check out pics form the Thirty Seconds to Mars meet & greet.
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TheOne
December 9, 2009 3:16 pm
excellent review!!!! If someone says album is EMO, then Steven Segal is my friend
Sianti
December 10, 2009 1:03 am
ahahahaha…. (^()^)b*thumb up*
TheMissSparks
December 9, 2009 3:21 pm
An amazing review, Nicole. I am in love with Vox Populi and Hurricane… Of course I love the other songs on the album, as well. For the moment, however, these are the two that captivate me. Thank you again for the AXC tickets… I can’t wait to pick them up tomorrow
Erik
December 9, 2009 3:23 pm
this album is amazing but i have a feeling its going to be one of the most under-appreciated albums of 2009
Nicole
December 9, 2009 3:53 pm
Well, it won’t be under-appreciated if we spread the good word my friends! It really is a work of art.
Maurice
December 10, 2009 12:59 am
In my humble opinion, This Is War is the best album I’ve heard since 2006. Kudos, guys.
Jaden
December 10, 2009 1:06 am
A nice and fitting review for a great album.
This is War is def.LOVEit or HATEit-stuff.
You and me seem to love it and it’s great to see many many people share these feelings.
Eiko
December 10, 2009 1:11 am
What a fabulous review!! So well worded. I feel the same way about this album. It was a labor of love that you can feel in the rhythm. I look forward to seeing them perform at AXC!
Joolz
December 10, 2009 1:15 am
Listen to it on a nice sterosystem if you can. It’s amazing. Listening by candle light is even more amazing. she is right, it is a world you walk into.
SUZANNE COLLINS
December 10, 2009 1:17 am
I concur, on every point. This is more an experience than an album, it’s breathtaking, and all-encompassing. What a delight to have something like this come along and flip off my “Jaded Switch”.
Tanya
December 10, 2009 1:18 am
It’s my birthday next week and with job layoffs and stuff i didn’t want any gifts. After listening to ‘This is war’ over and over i had no choice than to own it, my 63 year old mom liked it and will be buying it for my b-day/ xmas gift. Jared, Shannon, Tomo…… All i can say is you’ve touched my heart on this one thanks guys
Ukraine
December 10, 2009 1:50 am
War as test, how a way to know that alive?
Life as the sea, ocean. Today the calm and the sea caresss his(its) warm hand, in day you come again but you for a wave, a strong wind wait… And you climb up a wave how will carry?? You will fall at once or can be kept any time?? But if you could subdue a wave has won fight, both again and again and again…. As in life. When all time that sea already so does not attract a calm, when on war the calm as if and is not present war absolutely.
TAnja
December 10, 2009 2:26 am
this album is amazing!!!!i love it *.*
Marina
December 10, 2009 3:59 am
A loveletter to a band and an album… beautiful
Small Town War Hero
December 10, 2009 5:03 am
The review doesn’t really tell you anything particular about the album, and it’s a bit monoptic to say the least. Yes, it’s positive, but it gives no real reasons why it’s so positive other than some ethereal and so far unnamed ‘feelings’.
In saying that, I do very much love the album. Stranger in a stranger land is so layered with wonderful synth and absolutely nasty drumlines. It’s a sinister song that both attacks with force and quietly creeps up and slits your throat. To me, it’s probably the strongest song on the album. Others of note: Night of the Hunter, Alibi, Hurricane. L490 is a great follow up after Stranger… the intro to it goes on a little long in my personal opinion – stretching out the comedown from the rest of the album just a bit too far.
Vox Populi is for me the weakest song on the album, and doesn’t just border, but decamps into ‘cheesy’. It’s one of those songs I want to pretend 30STM didn’t record.
DarcieRoy
December 10, 2009 5:19 am
With the release of their third album, This is War, 30 Seconds to Mars has once and for all shirked their reputation as an “angst” band. It could instead be argued that, while the wounds of their battle with Virgin Records are evident in their latest release, they instead offer themselves as healthy role models for listeners, channeling their frustration and suffering into songs of hope, optimism, and strength.
“I fell apart but I got back up again,” Jared Leto croons in “Alibi”, first in a soothing tone evocative of a lullaby, later soaring to a cry that is both anguished and exultant. This sentiment of determination and healing echoes throughout the album.
It’s rare for me to like an album the first time I hear it. I’ve always found comfort in familiarity; usually new songs have to “grow” on me. But it was love at first listen for This is War. It’s the kind of music you can listen to with your eyes closed and see the sun rise; the kind of music you blast with the car’s windows rolled down; the kind you sing along to with the enthusiasm of a fevered tent-revival disciple. This album gives you chills from its first notes.
As if it were even possible to do so, following the release of their platinum-selling second album, A Beautiful Lie, the talented men of 30 Seconds to Mars have continued to improve their musical aptitude, producing a more polished and innovative album than the previous two. (Note that I do NOT mean more “mainstream” – despite their producer Flood’s experience with renowned bands such as U2, Depeche Mode, and The Smashing Pumpkins, they continue to admirably deviate from the flow of “pop” music.) One example of their musical pioneering would be the choral accompaniments to many of the songs: the uplifting chants heard in the background of such songs as the title track (also featured in the game Dragon Age: Origins), “Night of the Hunter”, and “Hurricane” are actually the voices of 30 Seconds to Mars’ fans, recorded earlier this year in a “digital summit” (just one of many ways the band incorporates its “army” into the music). These full-bodied compositions will undoubtedly play well in the acoustics of a large venue.
This Is War also contains more of the smoky, sexy, whispered vocals that particularly send Leto’s admirers swooning. Because of this, the album will likely perform well in an intimate, acoustic setting. Regardless of the site, This Is War seems destined for live performance greatness.
Overall, 30 Seconds to Mars has used their strife to demonstrate unparalleled poise and grace, and the result is an album with more depth and intensity than I’ve experienced in a long time. This Is War has triumphed.
Provehito In Altum
Darcie Roy
December 10, 2009 5:22 am
This review is great, and the album is even better!!!
Dani
December 10, 2009 6:10 am
There’s too much of the choir, the album would’ve been loads better if that were kept to a minimum. Or if the choir didn’t sound like little girls (no, I’d never believe it was thousands of fans if I hadn’t been active in the Mars community throughout this time)
Night of the Hunter or Hurricane MUST be the next single!
pureheartchic
December 10, 2009 8:56 am
Love, love, love the review!!! The album is… captivating and intoxicating!! Hurricane takes hold of me and won’t let go. Alibi just takes me to a a really, really good place
It’s an alternate universe I will be calling home for quite some time!!
Angela Love
December 10, 2009 9:18 am
Great Review. One of the best I,ve ever read on the guys!!
Melody Hice
December 10, 2009 9:55 am
Great review Nicole! You articulate quite perfectly what I felt as well! lol
I’m with you if we spread the word it won’t be underappreciated! Saw them in Denver last week and the show was just as beautiful, they are truly amazing artists and see like very genuinely cool guys! Props for the great review I appreciate it in an industry where “Jared is just and actor pretending to be a musician” take this Ben Gibbard! Ha!
Silvina
December 10, 2009 10:19 am
Amazing review!it is really a great album and everything they´ve given us with the album has completed a great experience and i´m sure we can all learn something from it.
Love the band and the song and everything they do to make us feel like a family!:)
Capricorn
December 10, 2009 10:25 am
Great review Nicole! “‘This Is War’ is not just an album you put on, it is an entire world you step inside” ..YES!
Red Velvet
December 10, 2009 10:29 am
Quite. Like nothing I’ve heard in a very, very long time.
Traci Mikus
December 10, 2009 1:30 pm
Absolutely amazing!! I sat there in the dark, with my eyes closed the first time I listened to it, just so I could concentrate. I was so into the words and the “story” that by the time I got to “Hurricane”, I was in tears. Jared has the most amzing voice and the song just hit me.
I love that they are so sure of themselves to make such a unique album. This is for sure some of their best work. I love 100 Suns as well. His acoustic work (any song) is my favorite.
I just got I see them in concert this past Saturday and hope that they decide to go out on their own and showcase this new work. I will be first in line for those tickets!!!
I will absolutely be spreading the word about this album.
Great work guys!!! Provehito in Altum!!!
Julia
December 10, 2009 1:49 pm
Absolutely amazing article!!!! Nicely stated:)
ima zombie
December 10, 2009 3:41 pm
This album was worth the long wait. The fans vocals and monks chants make it one of a kind.
Def didn’t disappoint!
"Frenchie"
December 10, 2009 5:13 pm
Wow You Said it All and then some… NicoleYour Spirit Moves Me to tearss… I Love Who You Are Bravo On Succh An amaazing Written Piece.
Melissa
December 11, 2009 12:24 pm
Great review! I love this album!
Thanks, Jared, for putting this review on your Twitter…And of course for making this album!
Sami
December 17, 2009 7:54 pm
finally! a review by some one who has actually listened to the album…thank you…absolutely love the songs!!
seriously, people should let go of preconsumptions and review it without all the ‘history’ behind who ever wrote the songs!