Album Reviews

Producer Flood is best known for his work with U2 (“Achtung Baby”), Nine Inch Nails (“The Downward Spiral”) and Depeche Mode (“Violator”) and was now asked to work his magic on Thirty Seconds To Mars’ turd... uhh third album. Maybe he took that a bit too literal because “This Is War” sounds exactly like what you might expect a combination of those three albums to sound like. Only a not so good version.

Jared Leto may think he has Bono’s capacity for pathos down pat, but ends up sounding like a whiny kid having a tantrum fit in public. You’re in your late thirties man! Time to leave the teen angst behind. The guitarist whose name I still can’t figure out does his utter best to sound like Edge but I’m afraid his work is drowned out by the torrent of synths and Tibetan monks (I kid you not) poured out over him. The band still tries to achieve this mysterious messiah-like status but everything is so over the top, that it just becomes one big joke.

Guess this is the album where Jared Leto proves that it might be indeed a better idea to not quit that day job.