The Black Parade is the third studio album by the American rock band My Chemical Romance, first released on October 23, 2006, through Reprise Records. A concept album, it is centered on the story of a man suffering from terminal cancer known as "The Patient", as he nears the end of his life. It has predominantly been considered an emo, alternative rock, pop-punk, hard rock, punk rock, and glam rock record. It was produced by the band alongside Rob Cavallo.
Work on The Black Parade began in early 2006, with the band being influenced by the success and expectations of their previous studio album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004); Gerard Way sought to create a concept album as the follow up to Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. Recording for The Black Parade took place from April to August 2006, during which, the band secluded themselves in the Paramour Mansion. Due to their self-imposed isolation, the band's members, particularly bassist Mikey Way, faced mental health issues that impacted the album's production and influenced several of its songs.
The Black Parade received generally favorable reviews from critics upon release. It debuted at number two on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart. It has been certified as 4× platinum in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, platinum in Australia, and gold in Argentina, Chile, and Italy. It was also given the Platinum Europe Award by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The album was supported by four singles: "Welcome to the Black Parade", which was the band's first number-one single in the United Kingdom, "Famous Last Words", "I Don't Love You", and "Teenagers". In support of the album, My Chemical Romance embarked on The Black Parade World Tour from February 2007 to May 2008.
In the years since its release, The Black Parade has been revered as one of, if not the most important, album in emo, as well as My Chemical Romance's defining work. The album's popularity ended the dominance of emo pop, and influenced metalcore, pop and hip hop artists, and film soundtracks, as well as alternative culture and fashion. It was reissued as The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts in 2016, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the album's release, while a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of the original album and a selection of bonus tracks will release in 2026. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked The Black Parade number 361 in its updated list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Background My Chemical Romance released their second studio album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, in 2004. A commercial and critical success, it helped the band become one of the most popular emo acts of the time. After returning home from that album's promotional tour in late 2005, the band became worried about whether or not their success was a "flash-in-the-pan" moment that would solely amount to nothing more than Revenge. They faced a lot of scrutiny, with many wishing the band to fail. The band also believed that their stardom greatly raised the expectations of their future work, with frontman Gerard Way concerned that the band's image would be permanently attached to that album and its themes that were fueled by the band's mental health.
When looking on where to begin with their next album, the band started by reviewing and finalizing a series of demos they wrote in a makeshift studio while touring in 2005, which were part of a side project that the band simply referred to as "Revenge part two". These demos would go on to become "Dead!", "Disenchanted", and "I Don't Love You". "Dead!", in particular, was based on the scrutiny and criticism the band faced while touring and written as a statement on defying the expectations of their critics. The ideas behind what inspired the creation of "Dead!" would influence the band's ideas and concepts for their work when they went to the S.I.R. Studios in New York City to begin work on their third album in early 2006.
Production and writing While writing new material, the band aimed to replicate the emotional rush that went into Revenge, while also surpassing it in scale as much as possible. They wanted to create an album that would be considered a "classic", something passed on from generation to generation. While Revenge was largely an album composed of whatever each band member could individually come up with, they aimed to try and make their third album more coherent, with shared general themes and a storyline. Gerard Way would create a storyline centered around life and death, which would later evolve into one centered around a man dying of cancer, whilst death presents itself to him in the form of his fondest childhood memory: his father taking him to see a marching band while he was a child. From there, he created a plethora of characters that would exist within the album's world: Mother War, Fear and Regret, The Soldiers, and The Escape Artist. The album would adopt this story, becoming a concept album. The album's working title was The Rise and Fall of My Chemical Romance, although its name was later changed into The Black Parade. Shortly after the band entered S.I.R. Studios, they created early versions of songs that would become "The End.", which was originally known as "Intro", "Mama", and "Teenagers".
To work on The Black Parade, My Chemical Romance traveled to Los Angeles in April 2006. They chose to record the majority of the album in the Paramour Mansion. They also got in contact with Rob Cavallo, a producer known for his work on albums from other artists like Green Day, to help produce the album. By the time that the band arrived at the Paramour, only about a third of the record had been written. The mansion itself at the time of the album's production was noted by the musicians as being scary and uneasy to be in, with all of the band members believing that the nature of the mansion "bled" into the sound of the music itself and left a significant impact on them all. Gerard Way, in particular, felt a necessity to "cut himself open" in order to write good music and completely engulfed himself within the atmosphere of living in the Paramour. He also found that he would often struggle to sleep while living in the mansion due to "night terrors". Bassist Mikey Way developed depression and alcoholism from the toll that living in the mansion left on him, particularly due to a lack of communication to the outside world.
After straining themselves for a long period of time, the band took a short break to play at Emo's in Austin, Texas. While this significantly helped out with the band's mental health, it led to them hitting a creative roadblock and the album's writing process halted. While Frank Iero managed to write one song during this brief period, "House of Wolves", it was apparent to all of the band members that they were struggling to get back on track. Motivated by their own frustrations towards their lack of creativity at the time, Ray Toro toyed around with a song titled "The Saddest Music in the World". Gerard Way helped Toro with the song, motivated by his fears about Mikey's mental health, and it eventually became "Famous Last Words". After that song was created as a method of letting out his emotions, Gerard Way along with the rest of the band managed to start coming up with new music again. Around the same time that "Famous Last Words" was created, Gerard wrote "Sleep", which was based on the troubles he faced falling asleep at the time.
Shortly afterwards, the band revisited a song concept they had originally sketched out in their earliest recording sessions, "The Five of Us Are Dying". It was the hardest song that the band tried to make for the record, having to rewrite it several times and never being satisfied with the result. In the middle of the song's creation, Gerard broke up with his girlfriend of six years, causing further distress during its production. It was not until Cavallo showed the band a short piano piece that he had written, which was then attached to the beginning of the song, that the band realized what they wanted to do with the song. It later evolved into the album's centerpiece, "Welcome to the Black Parade". A lot of music was written for the album would end up being cut by its final release, including a scrapped unknown cover song that was never recorded. In 2016, Gerard Way stated that The Black Parade "could have been, and almost was, a double album". One such example of a cut song was "Kill All Your Friends", which Gerard Way would go on to regret not putting on the album. Recording for The Black Parade would end by August 2006. The band would assist Cavallo with the final production of the album, while Chris Lord-Alge would mix the album and Doug McKean would serve as its engineer.
Composition and lyrics The Black Parade has been considered an emo, alternative rock, pop-punk, hard rock, punk rock, glam rock, progressive rock, and post-hardcore album. It also features several influences from 1970s classic rock, pop music, soft rock, arena rock, metal, and gothic rock. The album focuses on the aforementioned story of a man dying of cancer, known as "the Patient", as he nears the end of his life and goes on a journey to the afterlife. Throughout his journey, the "Patient" reflects on his life and the traumas that went along with it; death itself is primarily presented to the Patient in the form of his fondest childhood memory, a marching band that his father took him to see when he was young.
Songs
The album opens up with "The End", a track that uses a heart rate monitor and follows the Patient as he nears his death. "The End." then leads into the albums first proper full song, "Dead!" as the heart rate monitor from former flat lines. Lyrically, "Dead!" also follows the Patient's impending death, but interprets his fate in a sarcastic, cheerful manner. The album then leads into "This Is How I Disappear" and "The Sharpest Lives", two songs that are fairly similar. The former showcases a different way of discussing death, calling for one to "drain all the blood and give the kids a show". Meanwhile, the latter is about the idea of living life without caring about the consequences of one's actions, as the Patient looks back on his messy youth. The album's centerpiece, "Welcome to the Black Parade", focuses on the Patient's childhood memory before his death. The song opens up a brief piano introduction that later transforms into a grand-scale song that incorporates several aspects of various rock music sub-genres. Following that song, "I Don't Love You" serves as the album's first power ballad, with its themes being self-explanatory.
"House of Wolves" covers the Patient as he experiences the afterlife, and seemingly ends up in hell. Meanwhile, "Cancer" is where the character comes to terms with the titular disease and the effects that it has left on his appearance and life. "Mama" is centered around the character of Mother War, who represents the Patient's mother, while the Patient begs her for forgiveness for his actions throughout his life. The song features Liza Minnelli, who acts on the behalf of Mother War. Following afterwards, "Sleep" marks a slower point in the album as a second power ballad. "Teenagers" is unique from the rest of the album in the sense that it is not related to the story of the Patient at all, instead being based around Gerard Way's concerns about the youth being viewed by the government and society as "meat". After that song, the album returns to the story of the Patient with "Disenchanted", the album's final power ballad that follows the Patient as he finally nears his demise, and amounts life to nothing more than a "lifelong wait for a hospital stay" in the process. The album closes with "Famous Last Words", which instead of being a final track exclusively about death, is about making a promise to carry on and making the most of life while you're still alive.
Release and promotion