So Long and Goodnight

After twelve years, four studio albums and three UK Top 10 singles, the alternative rock band My Chemical Romance (MCR) have decided to go their separate ways. Frontman Gerard Way announced the decision on the band’s website, saying: “…like all great things it has come to an end. Thanks for all of your support and for being part of the adventure.”

The five-man-band have been together since 2002, where the release of their first album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love garnered them an underground fanbase. The album had a gritty, rough quality, which set the vampiric theme of Bullets well. Songs such as ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ and ‘Honey This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us’ became more popular following the release of their second album, but the distinctive, raw sound from Bullets was lost in the switch to a major label.

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge was the album that introduced MCR into the mainstream, making the band a music icon and massively influential in teenage culture. The concept album focuses around the story of a man killed in a shootout who has to kill one-thousand evil men in order to escape death and be reunited with his wife. Inspired by his grandmother’s death, Way’s song ‘Helena’ was the most successful single from the album in the UK, peaking at number twenty in the charts. The dark backdrop of Three Cheers is brilliantly framed by frantic anthems such as ‘Thank You For The Venom’ and melancholic ballads like ‘Ghost Of You’.

MCR gained a mass following after Three Cheers, and played a number of tours in 2005, including Taste of Chaos and Warped Tour. They stated in interviews that they were working towards being able to put on massive performances, but they didn’t feel that they could do so with Three Cheers, despite its success.

The Black Parade was the album that would finally allow MCR to put on the theatrical show that they had always dreamed of. ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’ was the first single released from the album, and the rock anthem rocketed to Number One in the UK and reached the Top Ten in nine different charts worldwide. MCR took the idea of a concept album to a new level, styling themselves in ‘Black Parade’ uniforms and releasing a limited edition version of the record, complete with a sixty-four-page book of artwork designed by a James Jean, a close friend of Way.

Their third album launched MCR to international fame, and they filled stadiums across the world on the 2007 Black Parade World Tour. The tour consisted of over one-hundred-and-thirty shows and included pyrotechnics, fog and confetti canons. This ‘rock opera’ styling allowed the band huge creative freedom in terms of staging and performance. Way stated in an interview that although this tour was the ultimate goal, it was incredibly straining for the band.

“When something drains you as much as it did after Black Parade, you end up not knowing if you want to do it anymore,” said the frontman. “You still have the love, but maybe not the want. There was something in the back of my head asking, ‘Is this going to happen again? Are we done?’” Way’s words imply that perhaps the first cracks were beginning to form at the end of the tour.

2010 brought Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys to the floor. Though it received mostly positive reviews, it was nowhere near as groundbreaking as The Black Parade, and although it reached Number One in the US rock billboard charts, it didn’t do nearly as well as their previous album in the UK. The members of MCR have stated that Danger Days was not a concept album, and it may be that this signalled a breakdown in the great creativity and storytelling that the group had held at their peak.

Love them or hate them, MCR have been a defining band of our generation, and their breakup signifies the end of an era for millions of fans across the globe. Whether or not you were a ‘Demolition Lover’, in the MCArmy, joined the Black Parade or were one of the Killjoys, it’s impossible to deny the mark that they made. So, I say to MCR, so long and goodnight. And thank you for the venom.