My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance is an American rock band from New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way. They are considered one of the most influential rock groups of the 2000s and a major act in the emo and pop-punk genres, despite the band rejecting the former label.
Formed in September 2001 by Gerard, Mikey, Toro, and drummer Matt Pelissier, the band signed with Eyeball Records and released their debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, in 2002. They signed with Reprise Records the next year and released their major-label debut, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, in 2004. Shortly after the album's release, Pelissier was replaced by Bob Bryar. The album was a commercial success, attaining platinum status over a year later.
The success of the band's previous albums was eclipsed by that of their 2006 rock opera concept album, The Black Parade. A major commercial success, its lead single "Welcome to the Black Parade" topped the UK singles chart. The album solidified the band's following, despite negative coverage in the Daily Mail generating controversy. The band's fourth studio album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, was released in 2010. Bryar departed the band prior to the release of the album, and in 2012, they added touring keyboardist James Dewees. In 2012 and 2013, the band released a series of singles they had recorded in 2009 under the collective title Conventional Weapons. My Chemical Romance announced its breakup on March 22, 2013. They released a greatest hits album, May Death Never Stop You, in 2014.
The band announced their reunion in October 2019, with a reunion show taking place in December. They followed it up with announcements for other shows and a Reunion Tour, which took place in 2022 and ended in early 2023. They released "The Foundations of Decay", their first new release in eight years, in May 2022.
History
2001–2002: Formation and ''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love''
The band was formed by vocalist Gerard Way and drummer Matt Pelissier in New Jersey, soon after the September 11 attacks. Witnessing the World Trade Center towers fall influenced Way's life to the extent that he decided to start a band. Shortly thereafter, Ray Toro was recruited as the band's guitarist because at the time Way could not sing and play the guitar simultaneously. Way has said, "Music was this thing I secretly wanted to do", and later wrote the song "Skylines and Turnstiles" to express his feelings about September 11.The name of the band was suggested by bass guitarist Mikey Way, younger brother of Gerard, who was working in a Barnes & Noble when he was struck by the title of a book by Irvine Welsh named Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance. The first recording sessions were undertaken in Pelissier's attic, where the songs "Our Lady of Sorrows" and "Cubicles" were recorded. The band refers to those sessions as "The Attic Demos". After hearing the demo and dropping out of college, Mikey Way decided to join the band. While with Eyeball Records, the band met Frank Iero, the lead vocalist and guitarist for Pencey Prep. Following Pencey Prep's split in 2002, Iero became a member of My Chemical Romance, just days before the recording of the band's debut album.
They recorded their debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, just three months after the formation of the band and released it in 2002 through Eyeball Records. The album was produced by Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly after the band became friends with him while playing shows in New Jersey. Iero played guitar on two of the tracks, one of which was "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville". During this time, the band was booked at the infamous venue Big Daddy's, where it began to receive more attention. The album produced three singles, "Vampires Will Never Hurt You", "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us", and "Headfirst for Halos". My Chemical Romance offered free downloads through PureVolume and the social networking website MySpace, where they gained an initial fan base.
2003–2006: Major label signing and ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge''
On August 31, 2003, the band announced via their website that they had signed a deal with Reprise Records. The band's second album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, was released on June 8, 2004. A month after the album's release, the band replaced Matt Pelissier with Bob Bryar. The band released four singles from the album: "I'm Not Okay ", "Thank You for the Venom", "Helena", and "The Ghost of You". The album went platinum in just over a year after its release.At the beginning of 2005, the band was featured on the first Taste of Chaos tour along with The Used and Killswitch Engage. The band also was the opening act for Green Day on their American Idiot tour. They then co-headlined Warped Tour 2005 with Fall Out Boy and co-headlined a tour with Alkaline Trio and Reggie and the Full Effect around the US. That same year, My Chemical Romance collaborated with The Used for a cover of the Queen and David Bowie song, "Under Pressure", which was released as a benefit single for tsunami relief on iTunes and other Internet outlets.
In March 2006, the album Life on the Murder Scene was released, incorporating a CD and two DVDs. It included one documentary DVD chronicling the band's history, and a second DVD with music videos, the making of their videos and live performances. An unauthorized biography DVD Things That Make You Go MMM! was also released in June 2006. The DVD does not actually feature any My Chemical Romance music clips or performances but contains interviews with those who knew the band before much of their fame. A biography titled Something Incredible This Way Comes was also released, written by Paul Stenning and published in 2006. It features information on their beginnings right through to their third album, The Black Parade.
2006–2009: ''The Black Parade''
My Chemical Romance started recording their third studio album on April 10, 2006, with Rob Cavallo, producer of many of Green Day's albums.On August 3, 2006, the band completed shooting the videos for their first two singles from the album, "Welcome to the Black Parade" and although not released until January 2007, "Famous Last Words". Both videos were directed by Samuel Bayer, director of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", as well as the music videos for the Green Day album American Idiot. During filming for the second video, band members Gerard Way and Bob Bryar were injured. Way suffered torn ligaments in his ankle, and Bryar suffered third-degree burns on his hands and legs. Consequently, the band was forced to cancel a few tour dates.
On August 22, 2006, the band played a special one-off show at the 1,800-capacity London Hammersmith Palais. The show was sold out in 15 minutes. Later during the show, the album title was confirmed. The band were bottled during a performance at the Reading Festival by fans of the band Slayer, who performed before them at the festival; Way later described it as their "greatest victory as a show".
"Welcome to the Black Parade" was released as a single on September 11, 2006. A music video for the song, directed by Samuel Bayer and starring Lukas Haas as "The Patient", was released later the same month. The single became the band's first number-one on the UK Singles Chart in October 2006. The Black Parade was released on October 23, 2006. In the US, "Welcome to the Black Parade" reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the band's only top ten hit to date on the chart.
The Black Parade World Tour started on February 22, 2007, featuring Rise Against and Muse as support acts. Reggie and the Full Effect frontman James Dewees joined the band to play keyboards and synthesizer from there on. In April 2007, it was announced that Mikey Way would temporarily leave the tour to spend time with his new wife, Alicia Simmons-Way. Way's temporary replacement was Matt Cortez, a friend of the band. During the third leg of the tour, as a support act for Muse, members of My Chemical Romance and their crew, along with members of Muse's crew, suffered food poisoning, and consequently had to cancel shows. The band later featured on Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution tour in 2007, along with Placebo, Mindless Self Indulgence, Saosin, Taking Back Sunday and HIM.
My Chemical Romance received a range of accolades for The Black Parade. Kerrang! rated The Black Parade as the fourth-greatest album of 2006. In Rolling Stone magazine's ranking of the top 50 albums of 2006, The Black Parade was voted the 20th best album of the year, and 361st on their top 500 albums of all time. My Chemical Romance went on to win the award for Best International Band at the 2007 NME Awards, and Gerard Way also won the Hero of the Year award. My Chemical Romance was also nominated for Best Alternative Group at the 2007 American Music Awards.
During the height of the album's popularity, British tabloid Daily Mail characterized the band and their fans as an emo "cult of self-harm", and published articles regarding the band with intentionally inflammatory headlines. One such article, "Why No Child is Safe From the Sinister Cult of Emo", published in 2008, linked the suicide of a thirteen-year-old British girl to an alleged "emo cult", which the tabloid used to characterize My Chemical Romance's fandom. In response to the newspaper's coverage of the band, over 300 British fans planned a march protest throughout London, ending at the tabloid's office. However, after concerns by police, the march was called off and instead about 100 fans congregated at Marble Arch. The Daily Mail defended their position and coverage of the band, saying that it was "balanced and restrained", "in the public interest", and that they were reporting genuine concerns raised by the coroner at the inquest. They pointed towards other newspapers publishing such stories at the time, as well as to their publishing of readers' letters defending the band and positive reviews of the band's albums and tours.
File:My Chemical Romance fire.jpg|thumb|Most of the concerts on The Black Parade World Tour involved the use of pyrotechnics, especially during "Mama" and "Famous Last Words".
In 2008, the band released a live DVD/CD collection titled The Black Parade Is Dead!, which includes two concerts from October 2007, the final Black Parade concert in Mexico, and a small show at Maxwell's in New Jersey. The DVD/CD was meant to be released on June 24 in the United States and June 30 in the UK, but was postponed to July 1 because of a technical fault with the Mexico concert. In 2009, an EP of B-sides from The Black Parade was released, titled The Black Parade: The B-Sides. The band then announced that they would be releasing "a collection of nine never-before-seen live videos, straight from the encore set of the Mexico City show from October 2007" during their Black Parade World Tour, titled ¡Venganza!. The release came on a bullet-shaped flash drive. It was released on April 10, 2009.