Unexpected album takes on concept

One song on the album was completely done but ended up being reworked.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
There's a point early in a band's career where opportunity and artistry collide.
Where the publicity machine -- radio, Internet, MTV -- has done its job and the rest is up to the group to see just how far its success can reach.
One act that recently found itself in these advantageous cross hairs is My Chemical Romance. The emo poster boy outfit saw its 2004 album "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge" breakthrough to the mainstream in a big way, culminating with an opening slot on Green Day's sold-out "American Idiot" tour.
So last year, when it came time to write its follow-up album, the band members had grandiose aspirations to not only make a statement record but to slightly alter the course My Chemical Romance had been given by the press and its fans. A decision was made to just go for it, with the result being the decidedly Queen-inspired "The Black Parade."
"The album is completely unexpected," said drummer Bob Bryar, calling from Brisbane, Australia. "We could have put out a record that was expected and it would have done OK, it would have done well, but it would have died out very quick. It was a risk to put out something different and this is definitely something different than I've seen in a long time."
The lynchpin of the album is the title track (actually called "Welcome to the Black Parade"), which early on received the title "The Five of Us Are Dying." In essence, the band felt the song was both a death march and a freedom ride. Constructed in a highly theatrical and minisuite fashion, perhaps an homage to the great Freddie Mercury, the song was for all intents and purposes finished but the band members weren't satisfied.
About maturity?
Maybe maturity is the final component added to the aforementioned dynamic of a band seeking its own identity.
"It's one of the most special songs on the record and it started off as something totally different," Bryar said. "So we took a total different approach to it, rewrote the song and some of the parts are the same and some are completely different. It was really hard to do because we had the song completely done."
He added, "That's one of our favorite songs because of all the work that went into it. Then it became the single and that's the song that wraps it all up for us."
Billed a concept album, "The Black Parade" features plenty of other experimentations, including the chamber sounding "Mama" (with Liza Minnelli contributing vocals). It's no secret that My Chemical Romance, which plays Monday at Wolstein Center in Cleveland, is attempting to leave behind the Fall Out Boy world in hopes of forging a new identity that begets longevity.
What remains to be seen is whether the emo monkey on the band's back is ready to let go.
"We feel that we've left that behind but a lot of people haven't," Bryar said. "I think this whole emo tag is complete [expletive]. Nobody really understands what it is. And it's something that people just throw on a band. The only downside to it is that you have people who won't listen to the group or take the group serious because of a tag."
He added, "We want to be just a great rock band and a great live band."