10 Best Hard Rock Albums Of The 2000s

10. 30 Seconds To Mars - Self Titled

Regardless of Jared Leto's pedigree as an actor, there's no denying that the man has some serious musical chops. Given that this band's debut came out when he was starring in movies like Fight Club and American Psycho, 30 Seconds to Mars hit the ground running with one of the more adventurous releases to come out of the decade.

There are certainly some elements that are more in tune with the nu metal side of the spectrum like the detuned guitars and broad chord voicings, but the way the band incorporates synths makes the sonic landscape feel incredibly vast. Along with bands like Muse, Leto and co. were developing what would be known as modern day space rock with some of these tunes like the pummeling "Capricorn" and the borderline cinematic "Buddha for Mary." While the instrumentation draws parallels to prog and metal, the real signarture of the band is Leto's vocal delivery, which has a perfectly clean shriek over the chaos below.

Once you give this record a listen, you start to realize where later space rock bands like Angels and Airwaves got their initial ideas from. Leto may be far from the best Joker, but his musical ventures are anything but laughable.