Back on March 22nd, one of the biggest alternative rock/pop punk bands announced that they were calling it quits. Unlike the band themselves, they announced their breakup in a quiet manner, simply posting a few sentences on their website that stated: “Being in this band for the past 12 years has been a true blessing. We've gotten to go places we never knew we would. We've been able to see and experience things we never imagined possible. We've shared the stage with people we admire, people we look up to, and best of all, our friends. And now, like all great things, it has come time for it to end. Thanks for all of your support, and for being part of the adventure.—My Chemical Romance”. For a band as big as them, that has released four detailed concept albums that told stories of Bonne and Clyde like robbers, a cancer patient moving between life and death and interacting with people in both, and rebellious freedom fighters against a corporation run dystopia, and dressed and acted the parts on stage to integrate the stories into their shows, the announcement was very quiet. Explaining their rich history and what has made the band so powerful in their genre could fill an entire book, so I will give you as much as I can.
The band themselves had a not so quiet beginning in 2001. Lead singer and front man Gerard Way was a comic book artist from New Jersey heading to his job in New York via ferry on September 11th. Watching the attacks on the towers and seeing them crumble down before his eyes, Way was forever changed and decided to do something more with his life. Immediately after, Way wrote the song off their first album titled ‘Skylines and Turnstiles’ to express his feelings about the 9/11 attacks, and recruited his younger brother and two friends to form the band. The band name came from Way’s brother Mike, who was working at a Barnes & Nobles at the time and was obsessed with a story by Irvine Welsh called ‘Three Tales of Chemical Romance’. Recording a few demos in their friend’s attic, they began to get an underground scene acclaim. After recruiting guitarist Frank Iero from another Jersey band that was about to end, the band was complete and they recorded the rest of their first album titled ‘I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love’. The album was released in 2002 under low budget Eyeball Records. The album tells a story track by track of a Bonnie and Clyde type couple as they travel across the country committing crimes, and are eventually gunned down together in the desert by police. The first two singles from the album, ‘Honey, this Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two of Us’ and ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ received large acclaim from critics and audiences alike, and along with offering free downloads of the album on MySpace, caught the attention of Reprise Records.
Reprise Records was quick to sign the band, and they began work on their second album. ‘Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge’ was released in 2004, and went platinum in under just one year. The first single from the album ‘I’m Not Okay(I Promise)’ was a huge success on the radio, gathering a large fan base for the band. The next two singles ‘Helena’ and ‘The Ghost Of You’ were even bigger hits, and the band became a sensation seemingly overnight. The album is again a concept album, following the story of the first album with the male character surviving his gun shot. He makes a deal with the devil to bring him the souls of 1,000 evil men to revive his dead partner, and this album tells the story of his actions, his emotions as he struggles to press on, and his guilt over what he is doing. The success of the album got them an opening spot on Green Day’s American Idiot tour, ensuring My Chemical Romance’s continuing growth in popularity.
In 2006, again under Reprise Records the band released their third and biggest album ‘The Black Parade’. The band went all out for this one, making a rock opera concept album telling the story of ‘The Patient’, a cancer patient near death that is drifting in and out of life and dealing with his struggles and his dealings with The Black Parade, the form death takes to come bring him into the afterlife, the form of his fondest memory with his late father that of a parade. In concert, the band would dress the part and play the album start to finish to tell the story of this patient. The first two singles from the album ‘Welcome to The Black Parade’ and ‘Famous Last Words’ sped the album into the mainstream, receiving critical acclaim and selling over 1,000,000+ copies. After the success of this album, the band would take a break until 2010, when they would release ‘Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys’, another story driven album telling the story of a group of freedom fighters that are up against a corporation that has taken over and enslaved the world. The album was actually a second attempt, as the band had actually recorded an entire album in 2009, and then scrapped the entire thing and recorded a new one. Driven by the singles ‘Na Na Na’, ‘The Only Hope For Me Is You’, and ‘SING’ the album was yet again another critical and mainstream success. The album was also a departure from their normal fast paced rock sound, taking in more electronic synth effects and experimenting with new sounds. The scrapped album, however, would get to see the light of day in late 2012. Titled ‘Conventional Weapons’ , the band released the album in sets of 2 songs every other week until all 10 songs were released. The album was well received, and believed by fans to be the better album between it and ‘Danger Days’ that had replaced it. The singles from the album ‘Boy Division’ and ‘The Light Behind Your Eyes’ were well received by fans, but never received radio play.
So, despite all the popularity, and all of the grand albums and shows; My Chemical Romance went out with a quiet whisper in March of 2013. The announcement came as a shock to fans and critics alike, no signs of them ending were seen beforehand. Rumors of scandals with members in the band floated around but had no evidence to back them up. Way stated that the band ended because they just felt it was time to move on, and nothing to do with turmoil in the band. A few days after the announcement, Way released a large epilogue letter to the fans explaining his feelings for the break up, but not the actual reason. On March 30th, he took to Twitter and with fans, listened to the band’s entire discography track by track and gave commentary on each and every song. It is evident from every band member’s blogs and such that they all miss the band already, so fans continue to be baffled by their end. The genre has lost one of its major leaders, and fans still express their desire to one day see this band again. Known for their grand designs, their large theatric shows, and detailed story albums that could also be related to everyday life, My Chemical Romance continues to, like the character in The Black Parade, stand strong even after their death.
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