Thirty Seconds To Mars — This Is War

Jordan Catalano's quest to be taken seriously as a rock star by the general public continues unabated, even as most are starting to forget that Jared Leto was once a Hollywood actor.

To be fair, he and his band have gotten a lot further than Keanu Reeves' Dogstar or "music historian" Billy Bob Thornton's Boxmasters, and by now Thirty Seconds To Mars have their own built-in fanbase who'll ignore any critical negativity.

But critical scoffing isn't going to let up, even with the release of their third album, This Is War, which plays more towards pomp and grandeur than straightforward rock.

There's no doubting these three are capable musicians. Leto can carry a tune, to be sure, yet he tends to either lean towards crooning or shrieking, which gets obnoxious about five minutes in.

Compounding this nagging problem are songs like "Kings And Queens," which is a maudlin choice for a lead single. "Night Of The Hunter" would have made a better impact, and a far less cheesy one to boot. "Hurricane," like the aforementioned track, also has the right amount of darkness to it, with strings and piano holding up strongly against a dramatic drumbeat.

If TSTM had filled This Is War with more songs like that rather than inspirational us-against-the-world anthems backed with uplifting childrens' choirs (jealous of Ryan Gosling?) then perhaps the schlock factor might have been a bit lower. I'm not sure there's any way having childrens' choirs in rock songs doesn't smack of absolute pretension, actually.

Overall, the TSTM fanbase will be overjoyed with this little piece of perfectly toned, perfectly planned alternative rock, but otherwise, don't look here for music that's groundbreaking or revolutionary. Big money and big studios tend to produce polished, radio-ready, incredibly safe commercial rock music, which is not what rock music is about at all.

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