Throwback Thursday: The Black Parade, by My Chemical Romance

In the year 2006 emo/punk band My Chemical Romance put out one of their most beloved albums of all time: The Black Parade. In fact, it would not be too much of a stretch to say that this album was so popular that it was one of the flag ship albums of the emo movement of the mid-late 2000's. This grandiose rock opera managed to spawn four well known singles and really skyrocketed the band to even higher heights of popularity and notoriety than they had already managed to attain with their first two albums.

The Black Parade is a rock opera that centers around a character known as The Patient, who is dying from cancer. It focuses on all of the memories he has of his life. In the end death comes to him in a form of a humongous, grand parade. Musically the album is very diverse, though it all has similar themes. The production is absolutely top notch, but I would expect nothing less from Rob Cavallo - the guy who also produced multiple albums for Green Day and The Goo Goo Dolls. The idea according to the band was to make music that would have a timeless value, which definitely shows through. It's more than just another emo punk album. This is rock n' roll at its most grand.

Welcome to the Black Parade is definitely the most epic track on the entire album. It definitely had the most showmanship, writership, and musicianship put into it. That piano riff with solo vocal intro is probably the best known piece of emo music to ever be written by anyone. In addition to that there are undeniable elements of Queen in the intro and outro, but it works in such a way that it doesn't seem like they are trying to rip them off too much. The rest of it is punk rock at its fiercest, yet most melodic. It flows seamlessly and gives you that feeling as though you are marching in a black parade; so I guess the band definitely achieved their goal here.

Teenagers is one of the most fun songs I've ever heard out of MCR. It actually is pretty blues/classic rock oriented. Kind of a surprise considering most of what I had heard from these guys previously was pretty modern sounding. That said, their dark anti-establishment lyrics still turn the flavor of the song that it definitely and unapologetically them. It's easy to groove and sing along to and it reminds me of the kind of tunes I usually listen to, so it definitely wasn't hard for Teenagers to win me over and want to learn to play on guitar.

Admittedly I've never been that big of a fan of emo music despite most of my peers being heavily devoted to it when I was in high school, but giving this album a fair chance was definitely one of my better decisions. It's good to expand your horizons, especially with music. The Black Parade is chocked full of wonderful little dark gems you never knew you would find unless you actually gave the whole disc a try. Though the subject matter is quite dreary, there is still plenty of fun to be found by delving into it. It's worth one listen-through at the very least.

The Black Parade, by My Chemical Romance receives 3.8 stars out of 5.

Track List:

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

Buy the album on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Parade-Explicit-Chemical-Romance/dp/B0011Z102K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479449685&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Black+Parade