Screenshot of the official video for Thirty Seconds to Mars’ new single, ‘Walk on Water’; Photo: YouTube
Yes, Thirty Seconds to Mars are still a band. And they just came out with a new single called “Walk on Water,” their first music since their 2013 “angst-ridden…emo-rock” album, City of Angels.
Jared Leto, the band’s frontman and star of the movie Suicide Squad — in which the government hires him for a secret mission to fend off super villains — said the song is about freedom and the American Dream.
“’Walk on Water’ is a song for all of us,” Leto told NME. “It’s a song about freedom, about persistence, about change and about fighting for what you believe in. It is a call to arms but also full of the optimism and hope that is such an integral part of the American Dream.”
It’s a patriotic anthem, to say the least. The lyric video, which they filmed in one day — Independence Day — shows clips of today’s America. And the lyrics are brutal when addressing the powers that be:
Look at the sky, see a dying star
White lies, it’s a man on fire
Making love with the devil hurts
Times are changing
Another lyric that shows the band’s opinion on the government is verse one — they fire shots right out of the gate:
Can you even see what you’re fighting for?
Bloodlust and a holy war
Listen up, hear the patriots shout:
‘Times are changing’
The song, at its core, is calling out the leaders of the United States (seen in the satirical lyric, ‘Do you believe that you can walk on water?’) and encouraging US citizens to speak out and act for what they believe is right.
The band hasn’t yet announced the name of the forthcoming album, but “the album, the tour, the film” are “coming soon,” according to the music video. The film will be a documentary directed by Leto, although it’s not clear what the documentary will cover.