My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade (Reprise)
UK release date: 9 October 2006
We've been wished bienvenue to The Jungle by Guns 'n' Roses and ushered into The Pleasuredome courtesy of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, but now it's time to be Welcome-d To The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. Apparently, amongst other connotations, The Black Parade is MCR's new collective noun for their fans. AFI have called theirs The Despair Faction for years - there really is nothing new under the sun...
At least MCR's music is still brimming with zest, a relief given the very real pressure following the unexpectedly multi-platinum achievements of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. The title track of their forthcoming opus begins unusually but dramatically with the first 90 seconds involving piano, distant marching bands and a general, elegiac air. However, MCR haven't gone all bizarre on us, and with an explosion of twin guitars, they rush headlong into the kind of adrenaline-powered punk bombast that propelled Gerard Way on to the bedroom walls of black-clad teenagers worldwide.
In short, this augurs well for album number three. After all, anyone who can conjure up comparisons with everyone from Blink 182 to Queen in one song and not sound crap, has got to have some genius somewhere.
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