My Chemical Romance
The Black Parade (Reprise)
Skwid of Long Beach punk outfit Heartwells tells of his for love for this modern MCR classic
Skwid: The Black Parade (TBP) is the perfect album imo. From its gut busting opener (ironically dubbed, “the end”) to an operatic swan song closer “famous last words”, it’s nothing shy of a religious experience for a heathen like myself. Heavy on theatrics, TBP serves as a concept album that tells the unique story of a cancer patient confronting death by way of chaos and despair, but the melancholy is matched with high energy and a much more major melody. It feels like the mature sequel to Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge that polishes form, but never loses grit; an operatic punk bohemian rhapsody meets the Beatles love child. Gerard Way harkens the voice of an angel with a giddy devilish delight that leaves theatre kids squirming.
It’s one of those unicorn albums with two A-sides. In fact, the actual B-sides released later on (“heaven help us”, “kill all your friends”, “my way home is throng you”) are some of my favorite tracks. And it’s gotta hidden one, “blood”! I know streaming kinda killed the radio (and cd’s), in addition to the era of hidden tracks, but I really freakin’ miss them.
Let’s just talk guitar for a minute… Ray Toro is god. Or perhaps he’s the son of guitar god, Brian May, considering we all know where the titular track “Welcome to the Black Parade” descends from. Frank Iero is great too, but together, they melt your face off your face. All the Heartwells leads I write are directly inspired from father Ray & grand daddy May. It’s just eargasm after eargasm. I’ve listened to isolated studio tracks and countless youtube tutorials, and it’s all just so so good. I will never be worthy, but it’s fun to try.
TBP is everything a millennial emo kid could ask for (and more). Big choruses, theatrics, shredding, and even some tasteful polka. My personal favorites are “dead”, “the sharpest lives”, and “famous last words”, but none of these are skip-able tracks. Easy choice for my favorite album.
Be sure to turn it up to 11…
Heartwells latest EP Ollie is out now and streaming everywhere.
Photo by The Corona Chronicles
