began recording third studio album

Thirty Seconds to Mars began recording their third studio album, This Is War , in August 2008. To produce the record, the band worked with Flood and Steve Lillywhite . Thirty Seconds to Mars had attempted to sign with a new label after the A Beautiful Lie tour, prompting EMI (the parent label of Virgin) to file a lawsuit for $30 million. EMI claimed that the band had failed to produce three of the five records they were obliged to deliver under their 1999 contract, which Virgin entered into with the now-defunct Immortal Records. Jared Leto responded to some of the claims in the suit stating “under California law, where we live and signed our deal, one cannot be bound to a contract for more than seven years.” Thirty Seconds to Mars had been contracted for nine years, so the band decided to exercise their “legal right to terminate our old, out-of-date contract, which, according to the law is null and void.”