My Chemical Romance: The Black Parade is Dead : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade was a rich concept album full of complicated arrangements and string-section accents — material that doesn¹t translate easily on the band's new live set. Recorded last year during tour stops in Mexico City and New Jersey, The Black Parade is Dead! finds My Chemical Romance stripping their emo epic down to its basic elements, which robs the music of some depth. Frontman Gerard Way's voice sounds a little fatigued, and many of the songs are undone by the vanilla mix, especially on "Welcome To the Black Parade," where Way comes off as way too shouty. The accompanying DVD shows off the band's sharp visual style and Way's manic stage presence, highlighted by his goth-Jagger strut. But for all of the theatrical flourishes, the songs remain slightly lost in translation, as though the band isn't yet comfortable with its recent material during his performance of "Cancer," Way almost sounds apologetic. The band's hard-hitting rendition of 'Dead!' complete with a jagged Van Halen-esque guitar solo and some stadium-sized "Na na na"'s, makes for a thrilling highlight, but the album's most invigorating sounds are still the screams of elation from the die-hard crowd.