The album The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance has been considered one of the best rock albums of 2006. The album was written as a concept record, which means the album tells a story with each song. The story behind the record is of a sick cancer patient who is on the edge of his death bed. When the patient dies, he is sent back into a world of his favorite memory as a child of seeing a marching band with his father, which is known as “The Black Parade”. The singer Gerard Way says he likes to believe that when you die, you re-live your favorite memory of when you were alive. This whole concept of Way’s makes the album have an edgy feel to it with a sense of hope of seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. The first song off the record is titled “The End”, describes the last final minutes of the patient’s life and thoughts before he is taken away by death. This song sets the record off into the story with it’s catchy and melodic chorus. The song then fades into the band’s first single off of the record, “Welcome to the Black Parade”. Way opens the song with his most famous lyrics off the record, “When I was a young boy, my father took me into the city, to see a marching band.” The opening to this song sets the tone to the rest of the record as he sings in harmony with piano notes that sends chills up your spine. Once the chorus hits, Way belts out with a powerful voice the lines “Your memory will carry on”.

The album has more of a deeper meaning behind it than just a story. Before front man Gerard Way joined the band, he witnessed the traumatic events of 9/11 while he was in New York City. The reason he writes around the topic of death is not to be “gothic” or “satanic” as some people label bands similar to My Chemical Romance, but to give listeners a sense of hope. Way says that when he saw people jumping out of the towers that day on 9/11, it broke his heart knowing that they had no chance but to hand over the precious gift of life without knowing if there is anything more to life after death. With this album, The Black Parade, he wanted to give that sense of hope out to listeners because on that day of 9/11, he saw everything but hope.

This album gives the listener great music that everyone can enjoy with a story they can follow along with. Every song is packed with melodies over catchy beats. The Black Parade is truly a work of modern art.