History Music / MyChemicalRomance

* AttractiveZombie: The music video "Helena" has a beautiful zombie girl dancing in her own funeral.

* BloodSplatteredWeddingDress: The covers of ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge'' and ''Life on the Murder Scene''. It's a lot easier to tell that it's a wedding dress on the latter.
* {{Bowdlerize}}:

** Their second album, ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge'', features a song which is titled "It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Deathwish" on the back cover, but "It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Fucking Deathwish" on the disc itself, as well as in the lyric sheet.

** ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge'' is meant to be about a man and a woman who are separated by death. He goes to {{Hell}}, while she is still alive. The man makes a deal with the devil that he will be allowed to leave hell and be with her again once he collects the souls of a thousand evil men. The record ended up being more about themes of loss, based on experiences that the band were going through while recording the album.

* MadArtist: Some people consider Gerard to be a not-so-villainous version of this.

--> ''"Everybody in the whole place, whole place, clap!"''

Outside the band, Gerard Way has a second career as a comics writer, beginning with ''ComicBook/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' (he is an executive producer on the comic's [[Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy live-action streaming adaptation]]). In the 2010s, he curated his own boutique imprint for Creator/DCComics, Creator/YoungAnimal, for which he wrote a run of ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'' and co-wrote ''ComicBook/CaveCarsonHasACyberneticEye''. He has also co-written two comics miniseries set in the world of the band's concept album ''Danger Days'', titled ''The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys'' and ''The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: National Anthem''.

* NunsNRosaries: Frank, Ray, Mikey and Gerard were all raised Catholic and it ''shows''.
** ''I Brought You My Bullets'' includes songs titled "Our Lady of Sorrows" and "Headfirst for Halos," and it doesn't stop there.
*** ''She said "We'll shoot back holy water like cheap whiskey"''
*** ''Someone save my soul tonight''
*** ''Cross the patron saint of switchblade fights''
** ''Everywhere'' on ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge''.
*** The music video for "Helena" takes place at a funeral/in a church, and the song itself[[note]]which is about the death of the Ways' grandmother, Elena[[/note]] contains lines like ''We'll meet again / When both our cars collide''.
*** "Interlude," which had the working title "If We're Not Careful, We'll Turn Into Catholics": ''Saints, protect her now / Come, angels of the Lord / Come, angels of unknown''.
*** "Thank You for the Venom" is explicitly addressed to a nun.
---> ''Sister, I'm not much a poet but a criminal''\\
[...]\\
''Preach all you want but who's gonna save me?''\\
''I keep a gun on [[Literature/TheBible the book]] you gave me''\\
''Hallelujah, lock and load''
*** "Hang 'Em High": ''Shotgun sinners''; ''The angels just cut out her tongue''; ''Mass convulsions / Strike the choir / By the grace of God''
*** "It's Not A Fashion Statement, It's a Fucking Deathwish": ''From the razor to the rosary / We could lose ourselves / And paint these walls in pitchfork red''
*** "I Never Told You What I Do For A Living": ''You can say a prayer if you need to''; ''Touched by angels, though I fall out of grace''
*** "[[BonusMaterial Bury Me In Black]]": ''I can't explain what happened to my faith''
** ''[[Music/TheBlackParade The Black Parade]]'' is about confronting/accepting mortality and thinking about the afterlife; according to Gerard, his fascination with the idea of death/the persistence of death [[http://web.archive.org/web/20130927172511/http://jussijames.buzznet.com/user/journal/1086401/gerard-way-pearl-jam-his/ as a theme in the band's music]] "comes from being raised Catholic."
---> Gerard: "Your first experience with church is really scary -- it's all about damnation and death. And the first time I was really taught about death wasn't really from my parents or TV, it was from a nun and it was [a] really terrifying way to hear it."
*** Literally every line of "House of Wolves".
---> ''I know a thing about contrition''\\
''Because [[GuiltComplex I got enough to spare]]''\\
[...]\\
''S-I-N, I S-I-N, S-I-N, I S-I-N''\\
''S-I-N, I S-I-N, S-I-N, I S-I-N''\\
[...]\\
''Tell me I'm a bad man''\\
''Kick me like a stray''\\
''Tell me I'm an angel''\\
''Take this to my grave''
*** [[BonusMaterial B-Side]] "Heaven Help Us" is similarly ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the title would suggest)]] entirely this.
---> ''Hear the sound''\\
''The angels come screaming''\\
[...]\\
''’Cause mostly I've been sprawled on these cathedral steps''\\
''While spitting out the blood and screaming,''\\
''"Someone save us!"''\\
[...]\\
''And will you pray for me?''\\
''Or make a saint of me?''\\
[...]\\
''’Cause I'll give you all the nails you need''\\
''Cover me in gasoline''\\
''Wipe away those tears of blood again''\\
''And the punchline to the joke is asking,''\\
''"Someone save us!"''\\
''Heaven help us now''\\
[...]\\
''You don't know a thing about my sins''\\
''How the misery begins''
** Gerard spent one tour regularly wearing a clerical collar.
** "Burn Bright" combines this with queer subtext: ''They always told me that "You never get to Heaven / With a love like yours" / Well, if if you're lost, little boy...''
** [[Music/DangerDaysTheTrueLivesOfTheFabulousKilljoys Danger Days]]:
*** ''ask angels made of neon and fucking garbage [...] scream out, "what will save us?" / and the sky opened up''
*** ''I'd rather go to hell / Than be in Purgatory''
*** "The Only Hope for Me is You": ''What have we learned? / Other than people burn in purifying flame''
*** "Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back": ''I hope you're ready for a firefight / ’Cause the Devil's got your number tonight''
*** Gerard frequently wore a rosary wrapped around his wrist in this era.

+ Music/HeyViolet, Music/LilPeep, Music/PinkPantheress, Music/MaisiePeters, Music/SleepingWithSirens, Music/TwentyOnePilots, Music/CarrieUnderwood, Music/{{Waterparks}}, Music/{{YUNGBLUD}}

---> ''So long, and good night...''

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: They try new things on every studio album they make, but compare ''Music/IBroughtYouMyBulletsYouBroughtMeYourLove'' to ''Music/ThreeCheersForSweetRevenge''. The difference is astounding: every member had improved and it gave the band the sound they're best known for.

** The black clothing and red ties of ''Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge''. Gerard's black hair and eyeliner in particular.
** The black marching band uniforms of ''The Black Parade'', with Gerard's DiseaseBleach white hair.

+ Music/PinkPantheress, Music/MaisiePeters, Music/TwentyOnePilots, Music/CarrieUnderwood, Music/{{Waterparks}}

[floatboxright:Influences:
+Music/BlackFlag, Music/TheMisfits, Music/{{Queen|Band}}, {{Music/The Beatles}}, Music/{{AFI}}, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/JoyDivision, Music/{{The Cure|Band}}, Music/TheSmashingPumpkins, Music/{{My Bloody Valentine}}, Music/{{David Bowie}}]

My Chemical Romance is an American {{alternative rock}} band from Newark, UsefulNotes/NewJersey formed in 2001.

They released their debut album ''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love'' in 2002, combining elements of HardcorePunk, PostHardcore, and [[EmoMusic emo]]. Its lead single, "Vampires Will Never Hurt You," became a hit on college radio. Their 2004 sophomore album ''Music/ThreeCheersForSweetRevenge'' proved to be their breakthrough release, spurred on by the success of the singles "Helena" and "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)". It is now viewed as an essential album of the early 2000s emo scene with its theatrical sound, gothic aesthetics, and powerful mix of post-hardcore aggression and strongly crafted songs.

In 2006, drawing on their love of Music/PinkFloyd's {{progressive rock}} and {{glam rock}} bands such as Music/{{Queen|Band}} and [[Music/MarcBolan T.Rex]], they combined their new influences with their old post-hardcore sound to create what is considered their defining work, entitled ''Music/TheBlackParade''. While most popular rock bands of that time were focused on a raw, garage-influenced sound, ''The Black Parade'' was intentionally bombastic and excessive, reflecting the '70s rock bands that lead vocalist Gerard Way loved and the hip, indie establishment treated with disdain. Throw in a {{rock opera}} storyline of a dying cancer patient and his experiences in the afterlife, and you have a 1970s album brought to life in the 21st century. The album was a critical and commercial success, with several review sites and magazines placing it as one of the best albums of the decade.

2010's ''Music/DangerDaysTheTrueLivesOfTheFabulousKilljoys'' divided their fanbase with its lighter sound and design, adopting heavy influences from GlamRock and PowerPop along with indie rock, dance rock, and [[Music/TheStooges Stooges]]-era garage rock. It also features a storyline, but this one is more frantic, enthusiastic, and exuberant than the morbid tragedy of ''The Black Parade''.

The band [[http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/mcr/my-chemical-romance announced that they had broken up]] [[http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/gerard-way-on-my-chemical-romance-we-were-spectacular-20130325 as of March 22, 2013]]. The news proved [[MemeticMutation infamously]] devastating to their fans; however, the members still remained close friends, and Gerard released singles featuring both bassist Mikey Way and lead guitarist Ray Toro.

Please don't confuse them with Music/MyBloodyValentine, who are a British {{shoegazing}} band who have nothing to do with them, though Gerard admits they inspired the "My" in their band name. (The "Chemical Romance" part is a quote from the back of the Creator/IrvineWelsh novel, ''Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance'').

* ''Music/IBroughtYouMy BulletsYou BroughtMeYourLove'' (2002)