Save the screamo jokes. Yes, there’s a dyed-pretty angstiness in 30 Seconds To Mars songs like ‘The Kill’. However, the fat, processed riffs, ambient trappings and impassioned vocals often suggest NIN without Trent Reznor’s self obsession, or even a Kerrang!-friendly Peter Gabriel. Singer Jared Leto’s profile means the trio aren’t always given their dues in terms of sonic innovation, but the rhythmical sophistication and choral attack of the This Is War album might just constitute Flood’s most ambitious and accomplished production job to date.
Plus, it was made for the stage. The Martians deliver a tight, theatrical show. Leto, freshly mohicanned and suitably messianic, is a master of crowd control and rabble-wrangling (twice tonight he stops the show to muzzle security and orchestrate a safe moshing space down the front), which one might attribute to a stint in the director’s chair lensing promos for scorchers like ‘From Yesterday’ and ‘Beautiful Lie’, both placed mid-set, just before a surprise solo acoustic interlude delivered from the balcony, all of which preclude any possibility of halfway-mark slump.
Other jottings from the notebook: Leto has a fine voice, modulating from Bono yodel to Strep-throat yowl. His brother Shannon is a colossal drummer. They’ve got some bloody good tunes: (‘Kings & Queens’ is the kind of three-minute U2 moment I’ll bet even U2 wish they could conjure right now). A couple more albums and this lot might just make the transition to the stadium-sized spaces their music evokes.