30 Seconds To Mars (album) - Musical Style and Themes

Musical Style and Themes

While some influences come by way of Dune (one of the band's favorite books) and similar, the space theme is meant as a metaphor for the human experience. Jared Leto explained "everything on this album is about real human experience. That is the single most inspiring source for us, the human struggle. Lyrically, it's a very personal album that sometimes uses otherworldly elements or conceptual ideas to illustrate a truthful personal situation." The band drew influence from Pink Floyd, The Cure, Björk, Rush, Depeche Mode, The Who; according to Shannon Leto "mostly big conceptional bands; bands that had depth; bands that were dynamic." Karin Lowachee, describing the meanings of the songs, said "Admittedly interested in things otherwordly and their relationship to (sub) cultures, lyricist Jared allows the listener to draw his or her own conclusions to the songs' meanings. This makes the music especially personal, as whatever images you conjure from the sound and words can be interpreted by your own inner language."

Jared Leto explained, "Capricorn (A Brand New Name)," the album's opening track, is "about a desire for renewal. But I'd rather let people take their own understanding and meaning from the song. I think that is one of the exciting things about music, the interpretation, from individual to individual and how it can change so much." "Fallen" is about escape. It is the oldest of all the songs on the album and, initially, it was not going to be included. There was a demo floating around that the band wasn't satisfied with but there were some that had strong feelings about this song within the 30 Seconds to Mars camp, so they decided to rework it. "Buddha for Mary" is not about a specific person, it's "definitely a metaphor," Jared said. About "End of the Beginning" Jared explained "I think we are all looking for something, and we always will be. I think it's our nature." Describing "Revolution" as an anti-American song, Jared commented "We don't feel it is an anti-American song at all. That is a song that can be taken many different ways. If it is taken literally or politically it could be misinterpreted. We didn't want a song like that to overshadow what we are about. And considering that people have a tendency to take things very literal we felt that especially after 9/11 it didn't fit thematically with the rest of the record. It took on new dimensions."

The band's phoenix logo, which 30 Seconds to Mars named "Mithra", bears the phrase "Provehito in Altum", the band's motto. Roughly translated from Latin, this means "Launch forth into the deep"; a more stylized version would be "Rocket in(to) High(ness)". It can also be translated in "March on into higher grounds" or "Launch forth into higher grounds." The phoenix is a bird in Egyptian mythology that lived in the desert for 500 years and then consumed itself by fire, later to rise renewed from its ashes. The arrow is a visual representation for "Provehito in Altum", the progressive leap. Is believed that the four glyphics have had two different meanings. The first explanation is that they stand for the band's name: the first symbol is two intertwined threes representing "30". The second is rotating in the opposite direction, almost as if it is counting down which symbolizes "seconds". The third is three vertical lines, that looking in between them, is got the Roman numeral two which stands for "to". The fourth represents Mars with its two moons Phobos and Deimos. The second explanation is that they symbolize each of the four terrestrial planets. The first symbol is two intertwined "M's" which stand for Mercury. The second looks like it is rotating in the opposite direction and Venus rotates in the opposite direction of all the terrestrial planets. The third is the roman numeral three which stands for Earth, the third planet from the Sun. The last symbol is Mars with its two moons Phobos an Deimos. 30 Seconds to Mars has not officially commented on the glyphics. However the band has said that they represent different elements in the band.