30 Seconds to Mars
A Beautiful Lie

THE REVIEW

The concept of this "coming from Mars" already implies diversity, alienation, and estrangement from the affairs of the world and brings us back to the atmosphere of Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. At first glance, the sound is very "nu-metal" or, better yet, with a more current definition, "emo-core", a new generation musical genre. Neo-romantic, neo-gothic, very "screaming". They arrived in Italy with the classic academic delay, about two years after the album's release.

Rarefied atmospheres, alien invasions, hidden fears. Desperate escapes, wars between worlds, landings on Mars, interspatial departures. All this was in the first album: instead, this time the alien is much closer to us. Indeed, it is inside us. These days we can see on the main music networks in "heavy rotation" the music video for "The Kill", inspired by Stanley Kubrick's Shining (Overlook Hotel). The band members stay at this hotel and are haunted by their respective alter-egos, dressed to play at a 1920s party, populated by identical twins. The entire track is focused on the fear of oneself and one's inner shadows, with a psychological conflict so strong it drives to suicide ("Come break me down - Bury me, bury me - I am finished with you"). "A beautiful lie", the title track, is a kind of anthem to lies, ambiguity, the willingness to mask the past by playing with the truth. Through the grandeur of "From Yesterday" (the beginning is a clear reference to U2) we encounter the mystical crisis: indeed, singer Jared Leto questions an undefined but very powerful entity, that is, the one who "has the world on his face" ("On his face is a map of the world").
The most recurring and recognizable sounds are powerful guitar riffs, alternating with a voice now velvety and languid, now broken by genuine cries of anger, pain, despair, impotence. They sound good, reminiscent of several other bands already heard, such as Evanescence, Linkin Park, Incubus, they could also be defined as a "sugarcoated version of Tool"; they move from extreme hard as in "Attack" or "Battle of one" to the poignant ballad of "A modern myth" made very elegant by strings and acoustic guitar. In "R-Evolve" they seem like the thoughts of a death row inmate, reflecting on what they've done and why, indeed, they've never lived a real life. And they invoke execution to free themselves from themselves ("It's time for execution; it's time to execute"). Jared Leto's band (a familiar face, co-star in films like Alexander and Lord of War) is making headway: in the USA 30 Seconds to Mars have been famous for a few years already, they will probably find fertile ground in Europe as well.