Welcome 'back' to The Black Parade: My Chemical Romance Return

By Gail El-Halaby, Third Year Psychology

Best known for their emo hits such as 'Welcome to The Black Parade', and 'Teenagers', US alt-rock pioneers, My Chemical Romance, have announced a series of reunion shows around the world.  

I vividly remember the night of March 22nd, 2013. Fifteen-year-old Gail was in the midst of her “emo days”, worshipping the likes of emo pioneers Pierce the Veil, Sleeping with Sirens, All Time Low, Avenged Sevenfold, and of course, My Chemical Romance. Therefore, when, on this dreaded night, the latter announced their break-up in a short and concise five sentence paragraph, the entire music world came to a standstill. Fellow emo friends of mine physically shed tears and the entire internet filled with memoirs and posts mourning the death of the beloved band. A true tragedy had hit the music world.  

My Chemical Romance have consistently been an enigma in the music world, with their undisputedly passionate cult following, fans lovingly self-referring as ‘Killjoys’ after the release of their Danger Days album in 2011, they quite possibly have one of the most dedicated modern fanbases I have ever encountered.

The band originally founded in New Jersey back in 2001, by Gerard Way (vocals), Michael James Way (Mikey Way, bass), Matt Pelissier (drums, until 2010), Ray Toro (guitar) and Frank Iero (guitarist)  immediately after the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York, in an effort to “make a difference”. Since then, My Chemical Romance quickly had an influence since the infancy of their career, arguably rising to the height of their fame with their third studio album The Black Parade (2006) - a monumental rock opera circulating the topic of 'The Patient', who is entering death.  

So, when the formal announcement for a reunion show on the night of Halloween appeared, ex (and current) black eyeliner bearing individuals everywhere rejoiced. It was impossible to get away from it, my social media feeds on every single social media site were absolutely flooded with excitement and anticipation. If you’d never heard of them, you definitely did now. Even my middle-aged Mum called to tell me that “that band you liked- The Chemical Romance” were back.  

The responses were overwhelmingly positive, with celebrities such as Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) among others also expressing their congratulations on the return. Bar the odd few cynicisms’ who believe that the move may have been monetarily driven more than anything else, excitement was everywhere.

The truly incredible thing is that the band never really went away, through the six years post-break up. Each respective member continued being musical icons in their own right, many engaging in their own independent musical projects, or in Gerard Way’s case, an entire Netflix and comic book series. However, MCR memes and memoires still popped up everywhere- I doubt there was a day where each member did not receive multiple fan messages  

The band are yet to announce a UK tour, but their Los Angeles premiere comeback debut sold out within minutes. I’m personally extremely enthusiastic about this move.  Notorious for their incredibly theatrical stage shows, I’m curious to see how they’ll compare live now. Having never caught them live before the break-up, the 15-year-old emo still inside me is ecstatic to know I’m finally going to get the chance to scream the words along to anthems like 'The Ghost of You' and 'Helena'.