Thirty Seconds To Mars

American rock group Thirty Seconds to Mars layers dramatic theatricality and unflinching sincerity across its shifting fusion of alternative, pop, neo-prog, and hard rock. Brothers Jared and Shannon Leto launched the project in 1998. Their first commercial foothold came with the self-titled debut album issued in 2002, which included the rock-radio success “Capricorn (A Brand New Name).” Multi-platinum sophomore album A Beautiful Lie, released in 2005, marked the decisive breakthrough, delivering sustained MTV exposure and cultivating an expansive, fiercely loyal audience. Images contributed by some of those supporters graced the artwork of the third album, This Is War, another multi-platinum international success. Although sales softened in the 2010s, the band continued climbing charts globally, reaching the Top 10 in multiple territories with Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams in 2013 and America in 2018 before unveiling sixth album It’s the End of the World but It’s a Beautiful Day in 2023.

Frontman Jared Leto, already an Oscar-winning actor whose profile rose through the 1990s series My So-Called Life, formed the band alongside his older brother Shannon. Approaching age thirty, Jared chose to pursue music and, with Shannon’s participation, officially activated Thirty Seconds to Mars in 1998. The self-titled studio debut appeared in 2002; its post-grunge textures, marked by affinities for Chevelle and Incubus, featured the domestic rock-radio hit “Capricorn (A Brand New Name).” Modest initial returns notwithstanding, the record persuaded the Letos to persist despite Jared’s mounting film commitments in Panic Room, Highway, American Psycho, and Requiem for a Dream.

Three years of recording yielded A Beautiful Lie, during which the musicians followed Leto across four continents to accommodate his shooting schedules. Issued in 2005, the album broadened the band’s palette with metal, neo-prog, and screamo elements, expanded its audience, attained platinum certification in the United States plus gold status abroad, and generated two Top Ten modern-rock singles, “The Kill” and “From Yesterday.” Extensive touring ensued with an expanded lineup comprising lead guitarist Tomo Miličević and bassist Matt Wachter, both of whom had played on the record alongside the Leto brothers. Wachter departed in 2007, yet the group maintained an international itinerary that year, appearing at Roskilde, Pinkpop, and Download while supporting the Used and Linkin Park.

Mounting success precipitated conflict with EMI/Virgin Records after the band sought a new label deal following the A Beautiful Lie tour. EMI responded with a $30 million lawsuit asserting that Thirty Seconds to Mars remained contractually bound to deliver three additional albums. The dispute concluded with the band’s return to EMI, clearing the path for third album This Is War, released in December 2009 and styled as a return to the sonic approach of the debut. Soliciting photographs from fans, the band produced 2,000 unique covers using the first 2,000 submissions. The album earned gold certification in seven territories including the U.S. and platinum certification in four territories including the U.K., prompting a lengthy trek that secured the Guinness World Record for “Longest Concert Tour by a Rock Band” after 309 shows spanning just over two years.

Following the tour’s conclusion, Thirty Seconds to Mars began work on new material while Leto completed Artifact, his documentary chronicling the making of This Is War and the EMI conflict. Artifact premiered at South by Southwest in 2013, months before the May release of Steve Lillywhite-produced Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams. The band toured extensively that year even as Leto received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Dallas Buyers Club. Another large-scale outing began in August 2014 when Thirty Seconds to Mars co-headlined the Carnivores Tour with Linkin Park. The group exited Virgin Records the same year and signed with Interscope in 2016.

After supporting Muse and PVRIS in 2017, the band issued pop-oriented singles “Walk on Water,” “One Track Mind” featuring A$AP Rocky, and “Dangerous Night” produced by Zedd. These tracks appeared on fifth album America, released in April 2018, which also included Halsey on “Love Is Madness,” debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, and coincided with a U.S. tour alongside Walk the Moon, MisterWives, and Joywave. During that tour Miličević amicably left the group.

Over the ensuing five years the band recorded amid a global pandemic while Jared completed films including House of Gucci, Morbius, and a Haunted Mansion reboot. In 2023 they launched the new era with It’s the End of the World but It’s a Beautiful Day, a synth-driven collection influenced by 1970s and 1980s electronic music that yielded the Top Ten single “Stuck.”