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What saves it from being nothing but thirtysomething wish fulfillment is that this move toward goth-glam requires 30 Seconds to emphasize hooks and gives them aural variety, which doesn’t make them seem any more serious but does make them considerably more palatable.
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Produced for the most part by U2 collaborator Flood, the new album rarely operates at anything less than a frenzied fever pitch, with thundering percussion grooves, Leto's top-of-the-lungs yowl and wave after wave of Edge-style guitar theatrics.
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Q MagazineAnd while there's no escaping the notion This Is War would be easier to love could Leto decide whether he wanted to be in U2, Linkin park, or Marillion, one can't help but admire his style. [Jan 2010, p. 117]
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Unfortunately, Catalano wouldn't waste an "uhh...whatever" on the hammy, bombastic third disc from Leto's band, Thirty Seconds to Mars (with Leto's brother, Shannon, on drums).
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This Is War is made serviceable by its polished showmanship.
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Jan 19, 2016Strings, masses of fans, and stadium-size choruses make up the patchwork for the majority of this album; the end result is pretentious and overblown, but that doesn’t stop This Is War from succeeding--well, for the most part anyway.
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Full of schlocky neo-grunge howls; trite, faux-rebellious, lyrics ("from the right to the left, we will fight to the death"); and dull stadium production from Flood and Steve Lillywhite, there's little artfulness among the frequent references to a vague burgeoning conflict.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 136 out of 176
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Mixed: 17 out of 176
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Negative: 23 out of 176
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Jan 26, 2011
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Aug 10, 2017
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Nov 28, 2012