This Is War

Recorded in the midst of a bitter contract dispute, This Is War is a show of outsized bravado. “This is not a game,” Jared Leto cautions atop the foreboding synthscape of “Escape," and for the next hour his alt-rock armada unleashes a maelstrom of industrialized post-grunge angst. The relentless intensity suits Leto’s acting chops. Amid the techno-emo of “Night of the Hunter,” he declares: “I will break your heart/Tear you to pieces and rip you apart”—and yet still sounds sympathetic.