In 2012, inside a studio filled with unfinished demos and dark concepts of lyrics, the lead singer, Gerard Way, was writing what would become his fifth album for the band My Chemical Romance (MCR). The band debated whether to move forward with their work, aware that while the new project wasn’t as intense as previous albums, it still aligned with the style of their earlier work. Dark concepts were not new to the band, as previous albums were also built with deep lyrics rooted in dark stories.
My Chemical Romance is an alternative rock band centered around themes of mental health, trauma, rebellion, and more. The band started in 2001 and broke up in 2013. However, they reunited in 2019 and are currently doing tours.
Each album has a story, and each of these stories are dim and profound with intense emotional narratives as the lyrics are vulnerable, with each album having a unique sound, story, and meaning.
One example of this is “The Black Parade,” which came out in 2006. The initial concept of this starts not with the band My Chemical Romance but with another band, “The Black Parade.” The album portrays this story by starting off with a man on his deathbed as he looks back at his life, and he thinks about what will come after. The concept is that death appears as an individual’s strongest memory and guides them towards what follows. This character, the patient, has terminal cancer. His strongest memory is his father taking him to see a marching band when he was a child.
This album is also about coming to terms with death. The primary idea behind this album isn’t just pushing people to live but also pushing people to want to live. The first song is titled “The End.” It is the start of his goodbye to life, calling back the theme about being true to yourself while you’re alive.
Throughout the rest of the songs, he looks back on things, confronts his mistakes in life, learns how to accept his fate and finds meaning even if he is going to hell. Throughout this album, he is wallowing in his sadness.
The last song, titled “Famous Last Words,” is made to make people want to live. At this point, the patient has accepted his fate; he might not make it very long, but he’s going to go out strong and he’s no longer afraid of what is going to happen next. Though this song doesn’t say the patient dies, as the album progressed, it’s assumed he had.
In terms of the fifth album, Gerard Way later described it as an extremely dark album. Within a year, the band would be broken up, and the album now known as “The Paper Kingdom” would be scrapped.
Now, more than five years later, the band is confirmed to be back in the studio after accidentally confirming it during a concert that someone recorded at Rogers Centre in Toronto, ON.
“We’re not going to be playing that now, I don’t know what I’m talking about, but you may be thinking that tho… ‘cause we’re uhh… at the studio,” Way said.
The fifth album’s story is told in an interview with Gerard Way. This story was said to be a deep concept about a support group of grieving parents that makes up this tale about how their children died.
“This storyline is about a support group of parents who are dealing with the loss of their children, so they make up this story about the children all being missing in the woods and fighting this witch,” Way said.
In terms of what people think will happen with MCR5 as an album, students speculate whether or not it will come back.
“I mean, I’d like to think that The Paper Kingdom would come back, but I just really don’t see it happening,” Bella Haake Taylor (10) said.
There have been multiple theories and ideas from fans over what might happen to “The Paper Kingdom,” not just as an album, but more than that.
“I could see Gerard turning it into a play. I could see something coming like a musical or an album. I could definitely see some scraps and demo songs,” Hunter Cole (9) said.
My Chemical Romance is known for albums built around strong, cohesive concepts that define their discography.
“They’re always somewhat top full. I mean, the band was formed out of 9/11. They’re very, like, influenced and they care a lot about the world around them,” Gabriel McDermott (12) said.
The controversy over My Chemical Romance being really “emo” and how they are trying to change that.
“It’s a stereotype. There’s no, like, real defining characteristics of music…, as a band, don’t think they like the label emo…, they as a band are trying to transcend the genre and make sounds and make music that’s greater than the stereotype of being emo,” McDermott (12) said.
With anticipation building for “The Paper Kingdom,” many fans are hoping its composition will capture the sound and storytelling style that has defined My Chemical Romance’s earlier work.
“I would want the story like the second album, and the music of the first album, the production of the black parade, and kind of the more happy vibes of Danger Days,” Cole (9) said.
