My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade

Author: Aidan Gray

One of the most popularized, scrutinized, and intriguing bands of the past few years has returned with their latest effort “The Black Parade”. With a resilient ‘gothic’ slash ‘Hot Topic’ community behind them, the east coast rockers known only as My Chemical Romance have resurfaced with a 13 track conceptual album that will have their woefully youthful and exuberant fanbase champing at the bit. Whilst most unaccepting elitists will continue to mock and ponder the showcasing of such an album on a [supposedly] more ‘heavy music’ oriented webzine, My Chemical Romance has delightfully cleansed the palette of ‘emo’ and makeup away with a tasteful “all rounder” rock release. Boasting some hooky anthems to some swansong ballads, My Chemical Romance has pickpocketed from decades past to deliver a finely tuned solid record. Telling the fair tale of ‘The Patient’ throughout the disc, listeners will soon being to realize the all important feeling of theatre and mass production that has been transferred from the mind of one Gerard Way and has been rooted deep into “The Black Parade”. Saluting Freddie Mercury’s grandeur on the lead single (’Welcome to the Black Parade’) to welcoming the Nightmare Before Christmas back on ‘Mama’, MCR even has a lyrical stab at their own teen fanbase with the fun track ‘Teenagers’. Haunting vocal pitches and a pounding rhythmic guitar sound intertwined with some unabashed lead solos lifts “The Black Parade” up and away from the depths of most boring radio-rock releases. The only bitter aftertaste that is left is the annoyance at the conspicuously similar ‘Detroit Rock City’ riff that seems to have weaseled it’s way into track 7, ‘House of Wolves’ – something almost as criminal as Godsmack’s song naming on “IV” – and the fact that the band still looks like something out of a dark alleyway in Santa Cruz, California. Overall, My Chemical Romance has delivered a decent record. A record that will be scorned by many a Tommy Toughnuts online, but [ironically enough] will be sitting quite comfortably in their CD players while their internet bravado runs amuck.

Rating: 8/10
Label: Reprise Records

(+53 rating, 39 votes)

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