The Black Parade

Untitled

The Black Parade is the third studio album by New Jersey rock quintet My Chemical Romance. It is currently set for an International release date of October 23rd, 2006 and a October 24th, 2006 United States release. The album is also a concept album, centering around The Patient, who is a person who had died young of cancer. The album is produced by Rob Cavallo, who has produced every Green Day album since 1994 except for Warning:.

The Black Parade Rumors

The band was very secretive about the new album when they were recording it. They played very few shows, and ended up canceling several concerts in July and August, mainly due to injuries sustained during the filming of the video for their second single.

However in mid-July, 2006, fans started hearing of The Black Parade. A page on the Warner Reprise website, and a Myspace profile were launched under this name. Many fans began to speculate what The Black Parade is. Speculation suggested that The Black Parade would be the name of the new album, but Gerard Way refused to confirm this, saying in an interview with Kerrang! magazine that the title was "super-secret".

The title of the album was officially revealed at a concert played in London on 22nd August, 2006. The show started with an announcement that My Chemical Romance couldn't play and that their "good friends" The Black Parade would be playing instead. They later went on to announce the title of the album to the crowd, and that The Black Parade was also their alter ego. After the concert a long interview with the band was posted on www.theblackparade.com answering some of the questions asked by fans. The slogan "We Are the Black Parade" was also said to mean that the fan s can also be a part of this and they are also The Black Parade by the band.

Concept

The concept of the album is Gerard Way's belief that when death comes, it comes in the form of your strongest memory. The album is focused around a character called the patient and how death comes to him. Gerard said in an interview released on iTunes that: "This album is a story of a man, known as The Patient who dies in a hospital. He goes on an odyssey and examines his life and the mistakes he has made. His strongest memory is his dad taking him to a parade when he was a child. So when death comes for him, it comes in the form of a black parade." It is speculated that The Patient dies of cancer, due to a song on the album called "Cancer", and Gerard cutting his hair short and bleaching it white to resemble a man who's gone through chemotherapy.

According to singer Gerard Way, the album will contain "some really dark stuff and some touches of Queen and The Doors. And there's some really experimental parts that sound a bit like System Of A Down. But all of that is mixed with a big shot of My Chemical Romance". Way has also said that the album "is way more dramatic, way more theatrical, completely over the top, borderline psychotic. It's the most pure, intense thing we've ever been involved in. We just didn't mess around at all. To be honest with you, it felt like we did at the beginning when we did [our first record], that's the kind of intensity that we got."

Influences

Gerard has cited Queen as a major influence, and it is interesting to note that their second album, Queen II (1974), was anchored by the song "The March of The Black Queen", composed by the late Freddie Mercury, to which the single "Welcome To The Black Parade" bears some structural and thematic resemblance. The tonality of the guitar orchestration in "Welcome To The Black Parade" also highly resembles the timbral qualities of the guitar orchestration done by Queen guitarist Brian May, especially in It's A Hard Life on the Queen album The Works. The opening and closing sections of "Welcome To The Black Parade" are highly reminiscent too of the Queen song Innuendo, off the eponymous Queen album Innuendo.

Gerard has also stated that the three albums which have the most similarity to this album, and some of the influences on this record, are Queen's "A Night at the Opera", The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and Pink Floyd's "The Wall".

Reception

Early critical reception has been extremly favorable, with many praising the new sound the band has developed for the album. NME gave it a rating of 9/10, saying "The Black Parade' is an ostentatious concept-album-rock-opera about death, and it's about to turn the late MCR into the biggest band on the planet." The review also goes onto to say that "MCR have moved so far from the emo sound you know", and praising the album as something to put on your greatest U.S. rock albums shelf, along with the likes of Nirvana's Nevermind, and Green Day's American Idiot.[1] Rolling Stone was also very favorable of the album, giving it a 4/5, and calling it " a rabid, ingenious paraphrasing of echoes and kitsch from rock's golden age of bombast."[[2]]

Track listing

1. "The End"
2. "Dead!"
3. "This Is How I Disappear"
4. "The Sharpest Lives"
5. "Welcome To The Black Parade" – 5:11
6. "I Don't Love You"
7. "House of Wolves"
8. "Cancer"
9. "Mama" - 4:07
10. "Sleep"
11. "Teenagers"
12. "Disenchanted"
13. "Famous Last Words"
14. "Blood" (Hidden Track)

B-Sides

1. "Heaven Help Us" - 2:56

Singles

• Welcome to the Black Parade - (2006)

Personnel

• Gerard Way - Lead vocals
• Mikey Way - Bass guitar
• Frank Iero - Rhythm guitar
• Ray Toro - Lead guitar
• Bob Bryar - Drums

Trivia

The Rise And Fall Of My Chemical Romance

The Rise and Fall of My Chemical Romance was originally thought to be the official title; however it was later confirmed as the working title by Gerard Way, the lead singer of My Chemical Romance, in a July interview with Kerrang! magazine. He stated "It was never the title of the album, more a spoof, or joke."

Favorite Songs

When asked by a fan what their favorite song was off the record in a video on The Black Parade website, Gerard and Mikey both responded "Welcome to the Black Parade" because it best represents the album, Frank Iero said "Cancer" because it's their only really stripped down song, Ray Toro said "Famous Last Words" because it ends the journey of the record with a sense of hope, and Bob Bryar said that today it was "I Don't Love You", because they recently had played it and he thought it was a great song.

Special Edition

File:BlackparadeSE.png

A special edition of The Black Parade was made available for pre-sale. The product description is as follows...

"The limited edition features a long skinny box with hinged lid, wrapped in black velveteen. The 64-page book in the box contains Gerard's drawings, making-of-the album notes from the band, and 4 special photo art cards, plus the CD."

Physical Appearance

The band's physical appearance has also changed. Gerard has cut his hair very short, and his black hair has been bleached blonde in order to resemble the album's main character, The Patient, having gone through chemotherapy. Bassist Mikey darkened his hair and no longer wears glasses. Frank Iero, Ray Toro, and Bob Bryar are also trying new hairstyles. The band's logo has been changed, as seen at Summer Sonic 2006, and resembles the font used in [3] The Black Parade logo [4]

References

Mama Studio Version