The Black Parade Is Dead! is a live album by the American rock band My Chemical Romance, released on June 27, 2008, through Reprise Records. Featuring a CD and a DVD, the release includes live recordings of two performances from the bands Black Parade World Tour, in support of their third studio album The Black Parade (2006).
These performances include their final as the "Black Parade" alter-ego band at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, and a later performance at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey. The Mexico City performance portion of the release only features every song from The Black Parade performed live, while the Maxwell's performance features a more varied track list of material from that album and their previous works, including a previously unreleased song which has been retroactively named "Someone Out There Loves You" by lead singer Gerard Way.
The album received positive reviews from critics. Many believed that the album was a good release to fans of the band, and others believed that it represented The Black Parade and the band at its best. However, others were critical about whether the concept of The Black Parade was overdone, and felt that the live performances were unable to retain a similar level of quality as the original album. The album charted in several countries, and has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, the British Phonographic Industry, and Recorded Music NZ.
Background and release
My Chemical Romance released their third studio album, The Black Parade, on October 23, 2006, through Reprise Records.[1] A concept album, it centers around a man dying from cancer, known as "the Patient", who reflects upon his life as he nears his death,[2] which is presented to him in the form of his fondest childhood memory: seeing a marching band.[3] This also led to the creation of an alter-ego band named after the album, simply titled the "Black Parade".[4] The album was supported by The Black Parade World Tour,[5] where the band would play the album in its entirety as the Black Parade.[6] They played as the Black Parade alter-ego until October 24, 2007, when the alter-ego was killed off at their performance at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City.[7] Their performances as the Black Parade were noted for their "theatrical"-styled production,[8] featuring elaborate stage designs and elements like pyrotechnics that would go off during certain songs.[9][10]
The band's performance at the Palacio de los Deportes was recorded and released as The Black Parade Is Dead! live album on June 27, 2008.[11] The release features both a CD and a DVD;[12] the CD features the recordings of their performance in Mexico City, while the DVD features the live footage of that performance as well as one of their later performances at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey.[7] As part of a fan competition, the band created a limit edition version of the album. It featured three masks themed around imagery based on the Day of the Dead, three downloadable live recordings, and faux death certificates for each member of the band.[12] The full footage from the DVD was released onto YouTube in 2019.[13] That year, the live recording was released on vinyl as part of Record Store Day.[14]
The USB flash drive that ¡Venganza! was released on.
During the Black Parade World Tour, each performance where the band played as The Black Parade would be followed by them returning to the stage to play an assortment of songs from their earlier albums.[15] While this also occurred at the bands performance in Mexico City, the footage was excluded from The Black Parade Is Dead! and instead released as ¡Venganza! on March 31, 2009. The release came in the form of a USB flash drive in the shape of a bullet and was limited to only 5,000 copies.[16] It has since been considered a collector's item.[17]
Content
My Chemical Romance performing as The Black Parade in 2007
The Black Parade Is Dead! features two discs: a CD containing the live recordings of the band's Mexico City performance, and a DVD with footage of that performance and their later one at Maxwell's.[12][7] The full track list of the CD is the exact same as that of The Black Parade, but played live and with one new track added, "The Black Parade Is Dead!", where lead singer Gerard Way announces to the audience that that performance would be the Black Parade's last.[7]
The tracklist of the Maxwell's performance is more varied, with only about half of it being songs from The Black Parade and the rest of it consisting of live performances of their other material.[7] It additionally features a live performance of a song that is referred to as simply "Untitled" on the tracklist, but has retroactively been named "Someone Out There Loves You" by Way. A demo or complete version of the song was never recorded, making the version of the song present on The Black Parade Is Dead! the only surviving version of the song.[18]
Sophie Bruce of BBC Music believed that the album demonstrated how My Chemical Romance was the "perfect live band", and that the album was a must-have for fans who were unable to see them live.[11] Anne Waites of Thrash Hits shared similar beliefs, giving the album a perfect rating and claiming that it demonstrated the "power they wield in the lowliest of circumstances", in reference to the quality of songs from The Black Parade even without the "bells and whistles".[21] Heather Phares of AllMusic believed that the performances and content featured on the album could come off as "being overdone", he felt that it was an appropriate release—particularly for fans of the album.[7] Similar thoughts were echoed by a reviewer of Sputnikmusic.[22]
Some reviews felt that the concept of The Black Parade was overdone with the release of the live album, and ambitious to the point of being detrimental to the original album.[7][22][20] Kyle Anderson of Rolling Stone felt that The Black Parade's ambitious production and instrumentals did not translate well into live performances, and believed that the recordings lacked the amount of energy present on the original album.[20] Meanwhile, IGN's Ed Thompson believed that The Black Parade Is Dead! was better than the original album, believing that the live performances gave it an "extra dose of the excess that made the studio album so good in the first place".[19]
A reviewer of Sputnikmusic praised the album's production and recording quality, saying that "everything is clear", and that the "variety of camera angles provided is more than sufficient". He further highlighted the Maxwell's performance footage, which he believed "excellently capture" the atmosphere and energy of the show, and that viewers could feel getting "knocked around by the predictably enthusiastic audience".[22]
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