My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade

The Black Parade is the third studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance. Released in Europe on October 20, 2006, through Reprise Records, it was produced by the band with Rob Cavallo, known for having produced multiple albums for the Goo Goo Dolls and Green Day. It is a rock opera centering on a dying character with cancer known as “The Patient”. The album tells the story of his apparent death, experiences in the afterlife, and subsequent reflections on his life. It is the band’s only studio album to feature drummer Bob Bryar before his departure in 2010.

The Black Parade has received generally favorable reviews, and the band achieved its first number one single in the United Kingdom with “Welcome to the Black Parade”. The album debuted at number two on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart and is also certified as Triple Platinum in the United States (by the RIAA) and the United Kingdom (by the BPI), as well as Gold certifications in both Argentina (by the CAPIF) and Chile (by the IFPI Chile). The Black Parade was given the Platinum Europe Award by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for one million sales in Europe. The limited edition boxed set also earned My Chemical Romance a Grammy Award nomination. Four singles were released from the album: “Welcome to the Black Parade”, “Famous Last Words”, “I Don’t Love You”, and “Teenagers”.

My Chemical Romance began The Black Parade World Tour on February 22, 2007, in the Manchester, New Hampshire, Verizon Wireless Arena. The tour featured 138 performances worldwide, as well as several festival and condensed shows. The tour was the longest and most internationally comprehensive headlining tour the band played, featuring three legs in North America, two legs in Europe, and one in Asia, Australia, and Latin America.

The song “Dead!” appears in the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II, and the three songs “Teenagers,” “Famous Last Words” and “This Is How I Disappear” were once available as downloadable content. The Black Parade has sold three million copies in the United States as of 2016, and four million worldwide. The record was reissued as The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts on September 23, 2016, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the album’s release. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album number 361 in their updated 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.