Reprise Records' My Chemical Romance's eagerly awaited new album The Black Parade, which hit stores on October 24th, has claimed the Number One spot on Soundscan's Rock, Alternative, Top Albums Retailers, Indy/Small Chain, Internet and Digital Album Charts. The album also shot to Number 2 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart, selling over 240,000 copies its first week of release. The Black Parade debuted at Number One in New Zealand and Chile, Number 2 in the UK and Mexico and Top 5 in other countries around the world. The first single, "Welcome To The Black Parade" has already topped the Alternative / Modern Rock Radio Charts in the US and the singles chart for two consecutive weeks in the UK. It is the New Jersey quintet's highest debut.
The success of
The Black Parade - an epic, theatrical concept album about mortality - has been driven by fan excitement, with Alternative Press calling it "
the most anticipated album of 2006." Laudatory pre-release press reaction has no doubt stirred up the expectancy: Blender calls it an "
instant classic," Entertainment Weekly says it's "
riotously enjoyable...their best album yet"; and The New York Times dubs it "
a tour de force about coming of age in the post 9/11 era."
Indeed. My Chemical Romance - singer Gerard Way, guitarist Ray Toro, bassist Mikey Way, guitarist Frank Iero, and drummer Bob Bryar - set out to make the album that this incendiary, volatile band will be remembered for. They began writing the songs shortly after the release of their platinum 2004 album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, which has sold more than two million copies worldwide, then went into the recording studio in April with Grammy Award winning producer Rob Cavallo.
"We all have records that shaped our formative years," says Mikey Way. "When you hear a song, it shoots you back to a moment in time. We want this album to do that for people."
