A half-lie every half-minute

Another week, another metal discussion. This time: Alternative Metal. I like to think of Alternative Metal as the illegitimate child of Alternative Rock, who spent her younger years fooling around with a slew of genres you wouldn't want to bring home to Mama: Heavy Metal, Nu Metal, Gothic Metal, Hardcore Punk, Post-Hardcore, Post-Grunge, Prog, Noise Rock, Hard Rock, Glam Rock and Electronica (the last two can be androgynous at times, and hence lacking of Mama's approval). When Alternative Metal was finally "born" in the mid-90's, his father could not be accurately determined.

"Alternative metal" is a tricky label, because it's as much an unbrella genre as alternative rock. I mean, you could have the "hard rock" of buzz radio ("Well Enough Alone" by Chevelle), the "metal" of pop-punk ("Headstrong" by Trapt) or the "post-grunge" of the new millenium ("Breath" by Breaking Benjamin). The only band I feel that can best define alternative metal is one of my favorites: 30 Seconds To Mars.

In between his TV carrer (My So-Called Life) and his movie carrer (Fight Club), Jared Leto joined with his brother Shannon to form 30 Seconds To Mars in 1998. The self-titled 30 Seconds To Mars debuted in 2002 with the lead single "Capricorn (A Brand New Name)." The album had a very progressive and neo-psychedelic feel; being a concept album set in space (as if Pink Floyd did Ziggy Stardust), the overall sound is atmospheric and their delivery is not so pick-up-able to the general public ("Oblivion").

The band wouldn't hit the mainstream until 2005's A Beautiful Lie. I first heard them through their music video for "Attack," which I saw on the (now defunct) International Music Feed. The rest of the world was introduced via "The Kill (Bury Me)" in 2006. The video was so engrossing and the sound so in-your-face good that it stayed on Billboard's Modern Rock for 52 weeks (that's a whole year, y'all!!!). In late-2006, they released their next theatrical hit, "From Yesterday" (this version is 7 minutes long, but the full video surpasses 11 minutes). It would be another year until they released their final single, the environmentally-conscious "A Beautiful Lie."

A Beautiful Lie is more personal and more emotional than its predecessor. The reverbed and trance-induced vocals are swapped out for post-hardcore screams and pleas ("Savior"). The grunge-esque angst felt throughout the record is something more approachable than what was provided before ("Was It A Dream?"). And the electronica/industrial still remains, as can be heard in one of their bonus tracks (a cover of "Hunter" by Björk).

After keeping their fans waiting for a long while, they finally released This Is War in December 2009. This showed another shift in musical direction for the band. While still keeping the themes of personal struggle and strife, they replaced the confusion with optimism and the self-pity with self-empowerment. Singles like "Kings and Queens" and "Closer to the Edge" marked their change from alternative metal to alternative rock (or whatever is defined as alt rock in the new decade, as "CttE" is borderline power pop). Case in point: "Hurricane" was co-produced by Kanye West and Brandon Flowers (note: the video's 13 minutes long).

Some bands do a 180-turn to end up losing old fans and gaining new ones. 30STM hasn't lost me yet, but I won't be following them for a while. Maybe I'm just fixated on the "harder" music, but when bands like these start releasing whole albums of "happy" songs, it makes me believe it's forced and that their just following the indie crowd (looking at you, Green Day). I may be TOTALLY wrong... after all, playas gon' play and haterz gon' hate. But when I have the time, maybe I'll check out all their obnoxiously long (yet asthetically appealing) music videos. Until then, here's another bonus track.

"Battle of One" by 30 Seconds To Mars

Automatic, I imagine, I believe,
Kelvin