“Night of the Hunter” is a song by American rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, featured on their third studio album This Is War. Written by lead vocalist Jared Leto,[2] the song was released as the fifth and final single from the album in 2011. The track was produced by Flood, Steve Lillywhite and 30 Seconds to Mars, and was inspired by Jared and his brother Shannon‘s youth in Louisiana.
. . . Night of the Hunter (Thirty Seconds to Mars song) . . .
The song was written by Jared Leto, with him playing lead guitar, Tomo Milicevic playing the bass guitar, and Shannon Leto on drums. Jared Leto said the following to MTV News:
My brother and I were born in Louisiana, we had a single mom… who, at the time, was a high school dropout living in the South, [so we] really didn’t have very much in terms of materialistic things. And although we moved out of the South when we were kids — you know, we joke we kind of climbed out of the muddy banks of the Mississippi River with food stamps in one hand and our instruments in the other — our mother helped carve a new life for us. And I think that song has some spirit of the South in it; some kind of American Gothic feel.[3]
Lead guitarist Tomo Milicevic said the following about the song to Music Radar:
This is a very special song for me because I think it’s one of the most unique-sounding songs on the record, and it’s one which gives our listeners a hint at where the band will be going in the future. I also think it’s a great example of Flood at his absolute best. He pushed us to take chances and go from a whisper to a scream here, meaning that dynamically we start out with almost nothing and wind up with the most massive production you can imagine. It’s a real experience, definitely one designed for good headphones.[4]
. . . Night of the Hunter (Thirty Seconds to Mars song) . . .