This is war

This is war
Studio album by Thirty Seconds to Mars
Publication (s)	4th December 2009
Label (s)	EMI Music
Format (s)	CD, CD + DVD, LP, download
Genre (s)	Hard rock , alternative rock , progressive rock
Title (number)	12
running time	60:40
occupation	Vocals , rhythm guitar , electric bass , keyboard : Jared Leto Drums , percussion : Shannon Leto Lead guitar , electric bass , keyboard , synthesizer : Tomo Miličević
production	Flood, Steve Lillywhite
Studio (s)	The International Center for the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences of Sound, Los Angeles, California
chronology A Beautiful Lie (2005) This is war Love Lust Faith + Dreams (2013)

This Is War is the third studio album by the American alternative rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars . It was released on December 4th, 2009 on EMI Records .

prehistory

In 2008, the band was sued by their Virgin Records label for breach of contract for $ 30 million. The contract was signed in 1999 with the now defunct Immortal Records label and was taken over by Virgin Records in 2004. It said that Thirty Seconds to Mars committed to producing three studio albums by 2008, which they failed to do by then. The band described the lawsuit on their website as "ridiculously exaggerated" and "completely unrealistic".

The legal battle lasted almost a year until the band announced on April 29, 2009 that the case had been settled. The California Court of Appeal's De Havilland Act does not allow any employment contract in California to last longer than seven years. Despite the dispute, the band signed a new contract with EMI, the parent company of Virgin Records.

Emergence

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

This is war   DE 12 December 21, 2009 (62 weeks)   AT 8th December 18, 2009 (58 weeks)   CH 20th December 20, 2009 (29 weeks)   UK 15th December 19, 2009 (57 weeks)   US 18th December 26, 2009 (47 weeks)

Singles

Kings and Queens   DE 39 December 07, 2009 (9 weeks)   AT 35 December 04, 2009 (10 weeks)   UK 28 12/12/2009 (18 weeks)   US 82 December 26, 2009 (5 weeks) This is war   DE 79 04/12/2010 (2 weeks)   AT 73 04/09/2010 (1 week)   UK 51 04/10/2010 (4 weeks)   US 72 December 26, 2009 (1 week) Closer to the edge   DE 26th 08/16/2010 (25 weeks)   AT 20th 08/13/2010 (17 weeks)   CH 61 July 25, 2010 (5 weeks)   UK 44 07/10/2010 (9 weeks) Hurricane 2.0 (feat. Kanye West )   DE 45 December 20, 2010 (12 weeks)

It took two years to work on This Is War . According to Jared Leto , it was a tough time for the band as they didn't have a label in the meantime. For the first time the album was fully recorded at the International Center for the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences of Sound in Los Angeles .

In May 2009, Kanye West announced that he and Jared Leto were working together on a song called Hurricane . Due to a dispute between the record companies of Thirty Seconds to Mars and Kanye West, this version could not be used for the album. Instead, a version without Kanye West was used for the album. On the deluxe version of the album, however, the song is available as Hurricane 2.0 with Kanye West.

Track list

Unless otherwise stated, the songs were written by Jared Leto.

1. Escape - 2:24
2. Night of the Hunter - 5:41
3. Kings and Queens - 5:48
4. This Is War - 5:27
5. 100 Suns - 1:58
6. Hurricane - 6:12
7. Closer to the Edge - 4:34
8. Vox Populi - 5:43
9. Search and Destroy - 5:39
10. Alibi - 6:00
11. Stranger in a Strange Land - 6:54
12. L490 ( Shannon Leto ) - 4:26

iTunes edition

13. Kings and Queens (LA Riot's Main Vocal Mix) - 6:12
14. Night of the Hunter (Flood Remix) - 4:52

Japan edition

13. Kings and Queens (Eddy and Tiborg Radio Mix)
14. Kings and Queens (Innerpartysystem Remix Main)

UK edition

1. Kings and Queens (Tek-One Remix) [available for download for a limited time only]
2. Closer To The Edge (Acoustic)

Deluxe Edition

1. Hurricane (featuring Kanye West )
2. Bad Romance (Live BBC Version) ( Lady Gaga Cover)
3. Stronger (Live BBC Version) (Kanye West Cover)

Deluxe Edition DVD

1. Closer to the Edge (Video)
2. Kings and Queens (video)
3. Making of Kings and Queens
4. Into the Wild EPK
5. Behind the summit
6. War is coming spots
7. Photo gallery

reception

Professional reviews
Average rating
source	rating
Metacritic	55
More reviews
source	rating
Allmusic
Alternative press
Big cheese
CD-evaluations.de
Kerrang
laut.de
Los Angeles Times
Melodic
Rock sound
Sputnik Music

The album received mostly positive reviews from music critics . This is War was awarded the highest score of 10 stars by CD-Reviews.de and wrote: “With the new album This Is War, 30 Seconds to Mars have finally reached the mainstream Olympus.” Big Cheese awarded 5 stars out of 5.

Alistair Lawrence of the BBC criticized that the music had hardly changed. Laut.de gives 3 out of 5 stars and says that Thirty Seconds to Mars might have moved away from mass suitability with this album, but the album is still not really interesting. Plattentests.de awards 5 out of 10 points and says that in this album, design triumphed over content.

Allmusic awarded 3 out of 5 stars.

The music video for the song Hurricane was censored by MTV and various other TV channels due to violence and sexually explicit scenes. At the MTV Video Music Awards 2011 it was nominated in the categories “Best Camera”, “Best Director” and “Best Editing”.

Awards

country	Certification	Sales
Australia	gold	35,000
Belgium	2 × platinum	60,000
Denmark	gold	10,000
Germany	platinum	200,000
Ireland	gold	7,500
Italy	gold	30,000
New Zealand	gold	7,500
Poland	platinum	20,000
Portugal	2 × platinum	40,000
Austria	gold	10,000
South Africa	platinum	30,000
United Kingdom	platinum	300,000
United States	gold	500,000
all in all	7 × gold 8 × platinum	1,250,000

Trivia

The song This Is War can be heard in the credits of the virtual role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins . Kings and Queens is the theme song for the movie Skyline . A cover is attached to the actual cover, which shows the face of a fan of the band. Anyone could send in a picture of themselves, from which 2000 photos were then selected. These were randomly distributed among the albums. Some of the pictures also feature celebrities such as Bam Margera , Gabe Saporta , Kat Von D and Conan O'Brien . There are also pictures of the manager of the band, the board of directors of the label and the mother of Jared and Shannon Leto .

Web links

• The album at emimusic.com
• Criticism at Laut.de
• Criticism at Plattentests.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 30 Seconds To Mars: This Is War. (No longer available online.) In: emimusic.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2012 ; Retrieved August 29, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Chris Harris: 30 Seconds To Mars' Jared Leto Says $ 30 Million Lawsuit Against Band Is' Ridiculously Overblown '. In: mtv.com. August 18, 2008, accessed August 29, 2011 . 
3. ↑ August Brown: 30 Seconds to Mars Soars. In: latimes.com. November 29, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2011 . 
4. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US
5. ↑ James Montgomery: 30 Seconds To Mars: 'We Killed Ourselves To Make This Album'. In: MTV.com. November 11, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2011 . 
6. ↑ Jared Leto - Failure Fan Jared Leto. In: contactmusic.com. December 9, 2009, accessed August 29, 2011 .  
7. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/music/this-is-war
8. ^ Sophie Schillaci: Thirty Seconds to Mars to Earn Guinness Records Title for Most Shows Performed During a Single Album Cycle . In: The Hollywood Reporter . October 17, 2011. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
9. ^ David Hall: Thirty Seconds to Mars rises to new heights . In: The Orange County Register , October 9, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2014. 
10. ↑ 30 Seconds To Mars Announce Spring Dates . The Audio Perv. February 11, 2011. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
11. ↑ http://www.cd-evaluations.de/reviews/rock/this-is-war-von-30-seconds-to-mars/
12. ↑ http://i45.tinypic.com/2elqdzm.jpg
13. ↑ Alistair Lawrence: 30 Seconds to Mars This Is War Review. In: bbc.co.uk. November 9, 2009, accessed August 29, 2011 . 
14. ↑ Deborah Katona: laut.de review: Hard drums, fat guitars, theatrical rock. In: laut.de. Retrieved August 29, 2011 . 
15. ↑ Dennis Drögemüller: The nightmare factory. In: plattentests.de. Retrieved August 29, 2011 .  
16. ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Review. In: allmusic.com. Retrieved August 29, 2011 . 
17. ↑ 30 Seconds To Mars: Sex and violence cause censorship. In: laut.de. November 30, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2011 . 
18. ↑ 30 Seconds To Mars: Platinum for "This Is War". (No longer available online.) In: musikmarkt.de. August 26, 2011, archived from the original on September 9, 2011 ; Retrieved August 29, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
19. ↑ Pascal Wuttke: 30 Seconds To Mars: Soundtrack for Dragon Age: Origins. (No longer available online.) In: rock-spot.de. November 4, 2009, formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 29, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
20. ↑ 30 Seconds To Mars To Produce 2,000 Album Covers. In: rocksound.tv. September 15, 2009, accessed August 29, 2011 .