The Black Parade is the third studio album by the rock quintet My Chemical Romance. Released in October 23, 2006 through Reprise Records, it was produced by Rob Cavallo who has also produced albums for Green Day. The album is the first for which Bob Bryar plays drums, as Matt Pelissier played drums for Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. It is a concept album centering on a character known as "The Patient". The album presents the story of his passage out of life, and his subsequent reflection on his life.Four singles were released from the album: "Welcome to the Black Parade", "Famous Last Words", "I Don't Love You", and "Teenagers". Though several reviewers have dismissed the album as a display of showmanship,The Black Parade has received generally favorable reviews. The album debuted at number two on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart and is also certified as platinum by the RIAA. The limited edition boxed set also earned My Chemical Romance a Grammy nomination.

Recording and production

There was a month of pre-production for the album in January 2006 in New York. The band then went in March to Los Angeles to finish writing the album. Recording began in April at the El Dorado Recording Studios in Burbank, California with producer Rob Cavallo.  While recording the band stayed at the Paramour Mansion, an allegedly haunted mansion in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California. It was while staying here that the band went through a "dark period" according to lead singer Gerard Way. Bassist Mikey Way left the house to seek treatment after becoming depressed. He visited with psychologists four times a week but later returned to the house to record with the band. It was out of this dark period that the song "Famous Last Words" was written. The period after was described by Cavallo as "a snowball effect of contagious madness" as new songs were quickly written.

The Black Parade is a concept album centering around the character "The Patient". It centers around his passage out of life and the memories he has of his life. "The Patient" dies young from cancer and death comes for him in the form of a parade. The album also expresses Gerard Way's belief that death comes for a person in the form of their fondest memory.The album has been described as a classic rock tribute with influences and themes being made from 70s classic rock. Some reviewers such as Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic and Ed Thompson of IGN went so far to say that the band moved from their old emo pop sound to a more classic rock sound. Lead singer Gerard Way has cited the bands Queen and Pink Floyd as a major influence on the album. Similarities have been noted between the guitar orchestration in "Welcome to the Black Parade", and the arrangements of Queen. Additionally, Pink Floyd's The Wall is noted as a major influence for the album, which is especially evident when comparing the album's opening track, "The End.", to the first track on The Wall, "In the Flesh?". Gerard Way has also stated that one of their biggest influences were The Smashing Pumpkins, often giving credit for their thematic videos to the creativity of Billy Corgan.

The Black Parade debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, behind Robbie Williams' Rudebox. In the United States, it also debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. In its first week, the album sold 240,000 copies, far surpassing the 38,000 best-week sales of the band's previous album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. The album debuted on the United World Chart at number one, selling 381,000 copies in its first week.The album debuted at number three on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart and was certified platinum after shipping more than 70,000 copies. It debuted atop the charts in New Zealand and was certified platinum there, with shipments of more than 15,000. The Black Parade has also been certified platinum by the RIAA for selling over 1,100,000 copies. It has been certified 2x Platinum in the UK, and has sold just over 600,000 units there to date. As of August 18th, the album has sold 1,169,697 copies in the U.S. In 2007 the album spent multiple weeks at no.1 on the UK Rock Albums chart.

Reception

The Black Parade received generally favorable reviews from critics. Some of the most positive reviews came from All Music Guide, New Musical Express, IGN, and Rolling Stone.Dan Martin from NME compared the album to Green Day's American Idiot, positing that "it's a piece of work that will challenge every preconception you ever had about the people who made it."Tim Karan of Alternative Press called The Black Parade "MCR's whole raison d'etre rolled up into one mega-decibel calling card". Ed Thompson of IGN stated, "The Black Parade is a rock and roll gem that celebrates everything that was over the top about the 1970s rock scene." David Fricke of Rolling Stone praised the classic rock feel of the albu. Rolling Stone went on to rank The Black Parade #20 in its "Top 50 Albums of 2006" feature. Spin magazine named it the 5th best album of 2006.EW states that "On their third studio album, a musical H-bomb of an effort, the Jersey quintet combine the rock-opera pomp of Queen with the darker, dirtier tones of their screamo past: Call it a Bro-hemian Rhapsody. Even without its broad concept — a dying cancer patient seeks revenge and redemption — Parade stands as one of the most cohesive, engaging rock records of 2006." It ranks The Black Parade the third best record of the year, being surpassed only by Gnarls Barkley and TV on the Radio.
The album wasn't without its share of criticism, and was panned by such publications as The Observer and Aversion. Stated Jamie Hodgson of The Observer, "...it reeks of a band with ideas above its station." Matt Schild of Aversion thought the album was "over-the-top" and "lame".Theon Weber of Stylus praised the album's use of Queen influences, but went on to summarize the album as "...a goofy record of bubblegum punk, with Queen lapping at its edges and enough good tracks to justify the smattering of empty screamfests."

The album holds a 79/100 score based on 24 reviews at Metacritic, which equates to the site's categorization of "generally favorable reviews".

Versions

There are three versions of The Black Parade that have the same tracks and album art. The difference between two is that one bears white text on a black background, while the other had black text on a white background. The third one is considered to be quite rare, it features the same track listing but instead of the marching skeleton, a picture of the parade drawn by James Jean. Inside the booklet you may find also lyrics and quite a big photo of a band and characters from the album.

Limited edition

There is also a limited edition of the album, the product description for which is as follows:

"The Limited Edition special packaging features an 11-11/16" × 5-13/16", long skinny box with hinged lid, wrapped in black velveteen material, with an impressed design on the top. The 64-page bound paperback book inside the box is modeled after a Victorian-style photo album, and contains art by James Jean, making-of-the-album notes, and more."

Vinyl versions

On December 11, 2007, The Black Parade was released in 12" vinyl format, the first of the band's albums to appear on vinyl. Two versions were released, the regular edition and the special edition. Both editions contain two discs, the first disc has tracks one to four on the a-side and five to seven the b-side. The second disc has tracks eight to ten on the a-side and 11 to 13 on the b-side. The special edition comes in a slip-case box with two 15-page books; only 2,500 copies were made of the special edition. Only 2,000 copies of the regular vinyl edition were made.

The Black Parade World Tour

My Chemical Romance began The Black Parade World Tour on February 22, 2007 in Manchester, New Hampshire's Verizon Wireless Arena. Rise Against opened for the group on the first leg of the tour. Thursday opened European shows, and Muse opened on the second North American leg. The tour ended on May 22, 2007 in Portland, Oregon's Memorial Coliseum. There was a ten day stop before the band continued on to various festivals and international concerts, before returning to the States for the Projekt Revolution tour. Although the bassist of the band, Mikey Way, took a temporary break from touring due to his marriage on March 7, 2007, the tour continued with a replacement (Matt Cortez, the band's guitar tech.) Mikey Way joined the band for one song during a show towards the end of the Projekt Revolution tour and rejoined the band permanently from October 4, 2007 onwards.

Track listing

Personnel