30 Seconds to Mars
This Is War

The 30 Seconds to Mars. Never felt the urge to listen to them. In fact, I actually avoided them. Because 30 Seconds to Mars are Emo, they're clowns, a trivial punk-pop, perhaps even poorly done. However, one day, almost forced by a friend of mine, I downloaded this "This is War" and started it, ready to fill my ears with crap. And that day I had the reaffirmation that you shouldn't believe in stereotypes.

It starts with "Escape," an impressive intro, where after the hoarse whisper of Jared Leto, the roar of the crowd explodes in your ears. Interesting, but a bit flashy. I was still skeptical. "La Nuit du Chasseur" whispers the faint voice of a French woman. And now it gets serious. "Night Of The Hunter" is the first substantial track of the album, and also one of its masterpieces. A wonderful mix of different sounds: a pop keyboard, a punk guitar, and an almost tribal drum. Jared starts off slow, then gears up with harmonies that are masterfully crafted. Catchy, but impactful. And this is the winning combination that characterizes the first half of the album. High-level tracks are also "Kings And Queens," "This Is War," where Jared gives a demonstration of his vocal skills, excellent both in a low, almost whispered range, and in a high, shouted and exciting one, and "Closer To The Edge," that is, the three most successful singles. The true masterpiece of the album is "Hurricane," a very successful mix of pop sounds, techno with a touch of rock, where part of the credit goes to Kanye West, who creates a beautiful melody in the verse entrusted to him.

More trivial tracks, but with great emotional level, are "A Call To Arms" (renamed "Vox Populi") and "Search And Destroy." And here the credit goes to a brilliant idea from the band: make the crowd sing (and they did this perfectly). Perhaps this is precisely the most surprising point of this album, the involvement, which in my opinion, is the main idea of the album. "We Are The Kings And The Queens," recites the chorus of the third track. In the "Closer To The Edge" video, among the participants "1,363,960 of you" are mentioned. It's this idea of "You too can be part of this" that makes everything so exciting. It's definitely more legitimate to think of it as a brilliant commercial gimmick, but listening to the album with this belief gives it much more sense. And it allows you to be moved, because this is not music for cynics.

Returning to purely musical matters, at first listen, the album seems very close to pop and commercial, but the mistake that dooms this type of work is excluding that something can be commercial (or even just catchy), and also well done, as in this case. We must indeed note the amazing vocal polyphonies, the warm and full sounds of the guitars, and the violence with which the drums can express themselves, as well as the originality that characterizes the first half of the album, both in sounds and structures. Thus, my advice is to eliminate any kind of prejudice against 30 Seconds to Mars before listening to what I consider an excellent album, which I rate 8.