I am not afraid to walk this world alone.
My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR) is an American alternative rock band from Newark, New Jersey formed in 2001.
Their music is best described as a mixture of Post-Hardcore, Pop Punk accessibility, horror punk-influenced lyrics and stylings, and a heaping dose of over-the-top theatrics and album rock storytelling straight out of the 1970s — all of this presented with the look of a Goth Rock band. To boot, they're often cited as a quintessential example of the emo genre (but don't tell them that — also, that's not a bad thing). They also have a notoriously bad Broken Base; enter at your own risk, but don't let that distract from the crazy-awesome music.
After witnessing the September 11 attacks, Gerard Way formed the band the following day with Mikey Way, Ray Toro, and Matt Pelissier. According to Way, the track "Skylines and Turnstiles" was based on these events, which in turn influenced the themes and style of the band as a whole during their formative years.
MCR released their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love in 2002, combining elements of the aforementioned post-hardcore and emo alongside Hardcore Punk. Its lead single, "Vampires Will Never Hurt You," became a hit on college radio. Their 2004 sophomore album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge proved to be their breakthrough release, spurred on by the success of the singles "Helena" and "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)". It is now viewed as an essential album of the early 2000s emo scene for its theatrical sound, gothic aesthetics, and powerful mix of post-hardcore aggression and strongly crafted songs.
In 2006, drawing on their love of Pink Floyd's progressive rock and glam rock bands such as Queen and T.Rex, the band combined their new influences with their old post-hardcore sound to create what is considered their defining work, entitled The Black Parade. While most popular rock bands of that time were focused on a raw, garage-influenced sound, The Black Parade was intentionally bombastic and excessive, reflecting the '70s rock bands that lead vocalist Gerard Way loved and the hip, indie establishment treated with disdain. Throw in a rock opera storyline of a dying cancer patient and his experiences in the afterlife, and you have a 1970s album brought to life in the 21st century. The album was a critical and commercial success, with several review sites and magazines placing it as one of the best albums of the decade.
The band's next album, 2010's Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, divided their fanbase with its lighter sound and design, adopting heavy influences from Glam Rock and Power Pop along with indie rock, dance rock, and Stooges-era garage rock. It also features a storyline, but this one is more frantic, enthusiastic, and exuberant than the morbid tragedy of The Black Parade.
(As noted before, "dividing the fanbase" is actually quite easy. Starting from their first album, fans were constantly arguing over anything from different themes/moods of the music to the color of Gerard's hair.)
MCR announced that they had broken up
as of March 22, 2013. The news proved infamously devastating to their fans; however, the members still remained close friends, and Gerard released singles featuring both bassist Mikey Way and lead guitarist Ray Toro.
In summer 2016, the band uploaded a video ending with the date of September 23 of that year, and it was also found that they had deleted the tweet announcing their breakup. The prospects of a potential reunion instantaneously set the Internet ablaze. Although the video was revealed to be promo for a 10th-anniversary reissue of The Black Parade — with the band confirming that they had no touring or reunion plans — the message that they still had a place in music was loud and clear.
The band privately got back together in 2017 and played a reunion show in Los Angeles in December 2019, with plans for a small tour (with Australian, Japanese, and New Zealand dates) and festival appearances in 2020 (later postponed to 2022 due to COVID-19). In May 2022, they released a new single entitled "The Foundations of Decay", which was their first song released since 2014.
Outside the band, Gerard Way has a second career as a comics writer, beginning with The Umbrella Academy (he is an executive producer on the comic's live-action streaming adaptation). In the 2010s, he curated his own boutique imprint for DC Comics, Young Animal, for which he wrote the 2016 run of Doom Patrol and co-wrote Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye. He has also co-written two comics miniseries set in the world of the band's concept album Danger Days, titled The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys and The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: National Anthem.
Please don't confuse them with My Bloody Valentine, who are a British shoegazing band who have nothing to do with them, though Gerard admits they inspired the "My" in their band name. (The "Chemical Romance" part is a quote from the back of the Irvine Welsh novel, Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance.)
Members:
Current:
Official Members- Gerard Way - lead singer
- Ray Toro - lead guitar, backing vocals
- Frank Iero - rhythm guitar
- Mikey Way - bass
Touring Members
- Jarrod Alexander - Drums (2011-2013, 2019-present)
- Jamie Muhoberac - Keyboards (2019-present)
Former:
- Matt Pelissier - drumsnote
- Bob Bryar - drumsnote
- For the last couple of years, there was no permanent drummer, going with Michael Pedicone as a touring drummer until September 2, 2011,note whose replacement was Jarrod Alexander for the remainder of the band's run.note Jarrod has since been confirmed as the drummer for the 2019 reunion shows.
- James Dewees recorded and toured as a session member for their last 2 albums before being promoted to a full time member a few months before the break up. However, James will not be returning for the reunion shows, instead being replaced by LA Session Keyboardist Jamie Muhoberac, who played on both The Black Parade and Danger Days. note
Discography:
Studio Albums- I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love (2002)
- Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004)
- "Helena"
- The Black Parade (2006)
- Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (2010)
Compilations
- Conventional Weapons (2013)
- May Death Never Stop You (2014)
Filmography:
- Life on the Murder Scene (2006)
- The Black Parade is Dead (2008)
Welcome to the Tropes Parade:
- Alternate Music Video: "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" has a music video made of footage from concerts and their daily lives while touring, and the other, far more well-known Real Trailer, Fake Movie music video featuring the members as misfits in high school. Only the latter has been uploaded to the official Youtube channel, though the former was aired on television too in some places.
- Ascended Extra: James Dewees, who was the band's touring keyboardist since The Black Parade era became a full-time member in 2012 . . . And then the band split up a year later. His only appearance as a member is their final single, "Fake Your Death".
- Attractive Zombie: The music video of "Helena" has a beautiful zombie girl dancing in her own funeral.
- Auto-Tune: In the bridge of "The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You". Also used much more subtly in "Cancer".
- Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: The covers of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and the live album Life On The Murder Scene (itself a photo recreation of the former album's drawn cover) feature a woman in a blood-splattered wedding dress (though it's much easier to tell she's in a wedding dress on the latter's cover).
- Bowdlerize: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge has a couple examples.
- The Album Single version of "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" changes the line "I'm not o-fucking-kay" to "I'm really not okay".
- One of the songs is titled "It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Deathwish" on the album's back cover, but "It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Fucking Deathwish" on the disc itself, as well as in the lyric sheet.
- Careful with That Axe: From Gerard, Frank and sometimes guest singers.
- "Just SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!"
- "You're just a ghost, so I can't hurt you anymore - SO I CAN'T HURT YOU ANYMOOOOOOOOOORRRRAAAAAAAAAHH!!"
- "LET ME GO, FUCK!"
- "I'm ok... I'm o-KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!"
- "And if they get me take this spike, and...YOU PUT THE SPIKE IN MY HEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!"
- "And down we go... AND WE ALL! FALL! DOWN! I TRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIED!"
- "When I GROW UP! I want to BE! NOTHING AT ALLLLLLL!"
- Cluster F-Bomb: "Our Lady of Sorrows." Full Stop.
- Concept Album: Each of their albums has an intricate backstory and concept behind it.
- This is especially true for The Black Parade, a Rock Opera about the final moments of a dying cancer patient and eventual death. When death comes for him, it takes the form of his fondest memory, which is a parade that he saw as a child.
- Danger Days is the story of the Killjoys, a group of outlaws in a post-apocalypic version of Calfornia who fight against the rule of an evil cooperation known as BL/ind.
- Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge is meant to be about a man and a woman who are separated by death. He goes to Hell, while she is still alive. The man makes a deal with the devil that he will be allowed to leave hell and be with her again once he collects the souls of a thousand evil men. The record ended up being more about themes of loss, based on experiences that the band were going through while recording the album.
- Concept Video: Most, if not all of them. Their most popular being "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" made to look like a movie trailer and "Welcome to the Black Parade," which sums up the plot of the album it comes from in about four minutes.
- Concert Kiss: Frank and Gerard were especially well-known for their antics onstage in 2007, the most famous being a passionate kiss at the beginning of the Projekt Revolution tour.
- Cover Version: The band has done several of these. Examples include:
- Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row" for the Watchmen soundtrack.
- The Misfits' "Astro Zombies".
- Pulp's "Common People".
- Blur's "Song 2".
- Morrissey's "Jack The Ripper".
- Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You".
- Queen & David Bowie's "Under Pressure" with The Used.
- Creepy Child: Gerard often takes on this persona during the more theatrical moments, and especially seems to be channeling this in the live version of "Mama" at the iTunes Festival: London 2011 where he says this little gem:(raises his arms and smiles) Mama! Up.
- Dies Wide Open: Mikey in the music video for "The Ghost of You".
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: This is the anti-piracy warning on the back of "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love":Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws and will result in Gerard coming to your house and sucking your blood.
- Dissonant Serenity: Crops up a lot, often in the middle of an otherwise very hardcore song. The instrumental will suddenly cut to gentle piano or strings and Gerard will start crooning, the new vocal style utterly at odds with the dark/nihilistic/violent words he's singing. However, this is a sure sign that the song is going to explode back to life in a few bars' time, even more loudly and aggressively than before.
- Sometimes there's just a single Beat of quiet and then either Gerard or Frank starts screaming bloody murder.
- Documentary Episode: Life on the Murder Scene.
- Dye or Be Recognized at Comic Con. Apparently, the blonde hair at the 2010 SDCC was Gerard's "costume" so he could buy action figures in peace.
- Dying Alone: "Cubicles" mentions this in the chorus.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: They try new things on every studio album they make, but compare I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love to Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. Bullets is rawer in production and doesn't have as much of a theatrical feel as subsequent releases, in addition to having prominent screamo influences that are mostly absent in subsequent releases.
- EmPHAsis On The Wrong SylLAble: "Skylines and Turnstiles," You're not in this a-lone.
- Emo Music: Although the band would disagree, they do have a lot in common with classic/post-hardcore emo. While some people will claim otherwise, they aren't really emo-pop since they have too much of a Hardcore Punk influence to really be an emo pop band. In addition they were an important band in the early 2000's post-hardcore scene along with Thursday and AFI.
- Epic Rocking: Over 5 minutes - "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" (5:26), "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville" (5:04), "Demolition Lovers" (6:06), "Welcome to the Black Parade" (5:11), "The Kids from Yesterday" (5:24), "The Light Behind Your Eyes" (5:12) and "The Foundations of Decay" (6:01).
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville", which doubles as a Shout-Out to Dawn of the Dead (1978).
- Fading into the Next Song: "Helena" -> "Give 'em Hell, Kid", "The Ghost of You" -> "The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You".
- Fanservice: Unintentionally.
Word of God says a lot of that (such as the "Frerard" gimmick) was done to piss people off, which is why a lot of that stopped after they realized people were into it. - Faux Yay: Tended to be a staple of live shows. Became most prevalent during the 2007 Projekt Revolution tour, where it was done to make a statement against homophobia.
- Glamorous War Time Singer: My Chemical Romance as a WWII army band in “The Ghost of You.”
- Gratuitous Panning: Destroya.
- He Is All Grown Up: Mikey was never unattractive, but definitely overshadowed by his Pretty Boy and Large Ham brother. Fans have reacted quite strongly to Mikey's Kobra Kid persona, where he loses the glasses and dyes his hair blond.
- Iconic Item: Feathered boas, striped ties, the leather jacket (that'll turn your stomach), the bat belt buckle from Life on the Murder Scene... Coffee and cigarettes might even count with this band.
- Mikey's now-departed glasses.
- Likewise, Frank's departed guitar Pansy.
- Iconic Outfit: Each album brought out a new outfit/costume that has defined the band members.
- The black clothing and red ties of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. Gerard's black hair and eyeliner are also a particular mention.
- The black marching band uniforms of The Black Parade, with Gerard's Disease Bleach white hair.
- Improvised Weapon: Towards the end of the "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" video, the band is squaring off against the jocks. Their weapon of choice? Croquet mallets.
- Nintendo Power Gloves and Zappers are the weapon of choice in 2019.
- Iris Out: The music video for "Welcome to the Black Parade" has a rather persistent one, which keeps on trying to end the video.
- Jerk Jock: The apparent "enemy" in the "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" video.
- Jump Physics: A live show will make you wonder if they've harnessed some kind of ability to alter this.
- Kaleidoscope Hair: Gerard has changed his hair a lot. He's had it black, bleached blond and cut short, then long and bright red for Danger Days.
- Large Ham: Gerard owns this trope and then some. If he were an actor, he'd constantly have a belly full of scenery.
- Lighter and Softer: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. While still embodying the band's strong language and edgy themes, this album seems like a much lighter direction in themes and musical style, particularly considering that the emo factor and dark imaginery are non-existent here. Instead, the band here opted for a much more punk rock style and musical elements of power pop and pop rock.
- Longest Song Goes Last: "Demolition Lovers" (6:06) from I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love and "I Never Told You What I Do for Living" (3:51) from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.
- Lyrical Cold Open: "Teenagers", "Famous Last Words", "Boy Division" and "Helena".
- Lyrical Dissonance: The songs that aren't sad have awesome music that you can't get out of your head, set to lyrics that sometimes induce
squick or fear when you actually listen.- Example: Headfirst for Halos. A rather upbeat song until you listen to the lyrics. "I think I've blown my brains against the ceiling. And as the fragments of my skull begin to fall, fall on your tongue, like pixie dust..."
- As Gerard once said:
- "Teenagers" is a cheery sounding song about how Teens Are Monsters and how that leads the POV character to implicitly shoot up the school.
- The duality also goes the other way around: Gerard often uses Metal Screaming for lyrics that are quite cheerful or romantic when you read them on paper.
- Mad Artist:
- Some people consider Gerard to be a not-so-villainous version of this.
- As some bands do, Gerard enjoys crowd participation. Unlike most bands, he sometimes SINGS the instructions to replace the lyrics. Catch the 2008 performance of "Mama" in Mexico where he sings a cartoonish intro and tells folks to start clapping."Everybody in the whole place, whole place, clap!"
- Mesodiplosis:
- "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us: 2 segments:
- I'm:"The amount of pills I'm taking
Counteracts the booze I'm drinking
And this vanity I'm breaking - "the" into "I'm":Well, I'll choose the life I've taken
Never mind the friends I'm making
And the beauty that I'm faking"
- I'm:
- "Thank You for the Venom": "Give me""So give me all your poison, and give me all your pills
And give me all your hopeless hearts and make me ill" - "House of Wolves": Split as sentences instead of just comma-separation: "You better" Anaphora and "the [noun] 'cause they're never gonna [other noun]" Mesodiplosis:"You better run like the devil, 'cause they're never gonna leave you alone
You better hide up in the alley, 'cause they're never gonna find you a home" - "Destroya":"You don't believe in God, I don't believe in luck
They don't believe in us, but I believe we're the enemy!"
- "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us: 2 segments:
- Mind Screw: The video for "I Don't Love You".
- Mood Whiplash: More common in the live shows and the actual albums.
- Non-Appearing Title: Album by album, excluding instrumentals, spoken word interludes and bonus tracks:
- I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love: entire album.
- Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge: all songs except for "To the End", although "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" only omits the "I promise" part.
- The Black Parade: "The End.", "This Is How I Disappear" (near-avertion: the lyrics say "Without you is how I disappear"), "Welcome to the Black Parade", "House of Wolves", "Cancer", "Disenchanted" and "Famous Last Words".
- Danger Days: "Planetary (Go!)", "Party Poison" and "Summertime"
- Conventional Weapons: "Boy Division", "Tomorrow's Money", "AMBULANCE", "Kiss the Ring" (lyrics say: "Kiss that ring"), "Surrender the Night" and "Burn Bright (It's "burning bright" in lyrics).
- Ode to Family: "Helena" is about a dead relative.
- One-Woman Song: Helena.
- Our Vampires Are Different: "Vampires Will Never Hurt You". Might contain a bit of The Dead Can Dance, as one verse refers to the vampires hanging out at a nightclub.
- Draculoids! Which are not really vampires. Just mooks in Halloween masks.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: "I'm Not Okay" sounds like a Jimmy Eat World, Fall Out Boy, or Get Up Kids style Pop Punk-influenced Emo song, in contrast to the rest of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge which veers closer to Post-Hardcore and classic Emo.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Vocal version—Frank's pretty skinny and short, but he screams like a maniac.
- Porn Stache: Frank sports one sometimes.
- Precision F-Strike: Played straight in the case of Three Cheers of Sweet Revenge, where "fuck" is only heard twice in the whole album. (It still got a Parental Warning sticker.)
- Also happens in individual songs, like Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back, which has one loud F-bomb in the middle.
- Prison Rape: "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us In Prison", which seems to be a subversion of Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male. The laughter at the end is the singer going insane and threatening to commit arson.
- Promoted Fanboy: Gerard Way was a fan of Doom Patrol, which he went on to write.
- Real Trailer, Fake Movie: The basic theme of the "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" video.
- Rock Opera: The Black Parade and Danger Days.
- "Sesame Street" Cred: They appeared on a Christmas episode of Yo Gabba Gabba! (billed as "MCR").
- Shout-Out: A fair number of their songs contain references to other things.
- "It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Death Wish" paraphrases one of Death's most famous quotes from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman:
"For what you did to me, for what I'll do to you, you get what everyone else gets—you get a lifetime!" note - Shot-for-Shot Remake: "The Ghost Of You"'s music video closely imitates Saving Private Ryan's Omaha Beach scene.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Gerard onstage.
- Slasher Smile: Gerard has a particular affinity for breaking into wide, eerie grins as he performs. The music video for "Famous Last Words" is a striking example.
- Something We Forgot: Ray Toro has, according to him and other members of the band, been left at truck stops by accident while on tour.
- The fandom sometimes seems to forget that Mikey exists.
- Take That!: We Don't Need Another Song About California may qualify as one towards the current pop music trends at the time. Cough, cough.
- Textless Album Cover: Danger Days, Living With Ghosts, and several special-edition vinyl versions of The Black Parade.
- Title-Only Chorus: DESTROYA, DESTROYA, DESTROYA, DESTROYA...
- Undeathly Pallor: Everybody in the protagonist's non-hospital scenes in "Welcome to the Black Parade," whatever's going on there. (Is it post-death or somewhere between life and death? Whatever the case, the non-hospital people are sickly pale, whereas the protagonist actually has color to his skin while battling for his life in the hospital, and so do the nurses.)
- Vocal Dissonance: Ray is a literal example of the trope, and the band themselves often surprised people in their early days being a bunch of emo/goth-looking guys who love screaming and guitar solos.
- War Is Hell: "Mama" and "The Ghost of You."
- Whole-Plot Reference: Their Music Video for their song "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us" recounts the plot of the movie Audition, interspersed with clips of them playing.
