"The Foundations of Decay" is a song by the American rock band My Chemical Romance. It was surprise-released as a single on May 12, 2022, by Reprise Records. It was produced by Doug McKean alongside band members Gerard Way and Ray Toro. The band wrote the song, while Way wrote the lyrics. Alongside the band's main lineup, the song features Jarrod Alexander and Jamie Muhoberac on drums and keyboard respectively. It was the band's first release since "Fake Your Death" (2014).
The song was well received from critics, who highlighted the song's composition and themes. Some publications considered it one of the best songs released in 2022. It charted in several countries, reaching number 1 on the Rock & Metal chart in the United Kingdom and number 132 on the BillboardGlobal 200. The song was later released onto mainstream rock radio on May 17 through Warner Records, and the band debuted it live at the Eden Project that same day. It was used as an opening song for multiple dates on their reunion tour.
Background, production and release
My Chemical Romance performing in Oklahoma City in 2022 during their reunion tour.
Six years after their break-up in 2013,[1] the American rock band My Chemical Romance got back together for a reunion show on December 20, 2019.[2] The band subsequently scheduled more shows worldwide, including a run of summer festival shows in mainland Europe and a North American tour.[3] In June 2021, the band's lead singer Gerard Way stated in an interview that he was working on music with Doug McKean,[4] the engineer behind two of the band's past studio albums: The Black Parade (2006) and Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (2010).[5]
McKean produced "The Foundations of Decay" alongside Gerard Way and guitarist Ray Toro. McKean also engineered the song, while Rich Costey and Jeff Citron mixed it and Mike Bozzimastered it. Alongside the main band lineup of lead singer Gerard Way, Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way, the song features Jarrod Alexander on drums and Jamie Muhoberac on keyboard. Gerard Way wrote the lyrics, while the band itself is credited for songwriting.[6] "The Foundations of Decay" was the last project that McKean worked on before his death in July 2022.[5]
"The Foundations of Decay" was surprise-released[7] digitally on May 12, 2022[4] by Reprise Records.[6] It was the first song the band released since "Fake Your Death" in 2014.[8] The cover art and visualizer video on YouTube, the former of which was designed by Aaron Hymes, depicts mounds of flies swarming around.[7] The song was later released to mainstream rock radio on May 17 by Warner Records.[9] That same day, the band debuted it live at the Eden Project in Cornwall as that show's opening track. It was the first show of the European branch of the band's reunion tour.[10] It was later used as an opening track for some of the tour's other shows.[11] They later performed the song at 2022's Riot Fest,[12] and during their Long Live The Black Parade tour (2025–2026).[13]
It opens up with static noise before introducing a mellow electric guitar, piano, and a "laid-back drumbeat" paired with Gerard Way's distorted vocals.[14] Ali Shutler of NME compared the song's opening guitar to the intro of "Dream On" by Aerosmith.[17] "The Foundations of Decay" then crescendos into the chorus, which Hannah Dailey of Billboard described as having "anthemic force" in a similar vein to the band's 2006 single "Welcome to the Black Parade".[14] The song goes between guitar breakdowns and slower-paced moments that highlight the lyrics.[14] Shutler believed that the song's composition combined elements from their past studio albums, viewing the "guitar breakdown" to be similar to one from The Black Parade. Both Maria Sherman of NPR and Shutler compared the song to ones found on the band's first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love (2002).[17][22] Shutler and Moore compared it to that album's "Demolition Lovers", with Moore likening their usage of multiple acts and Shutler comparing their opening guitar segments.[20][22]
An excerpt of the second part of "The Foundations of Decay", which references the band's origins and the September 11 attacks. Cassie Whitt of Alternative Press viewed this verse as referencing the "Hero's journey" trope.[7]
The lyrics of the song discusses the band's origins and legacy.[17] The song's opening was described by Shutler as Gerard Way "wrestling" his legacy and age ("Let the flesh submit itself to gravity"), and viewed some of the song's lines as him battling nihilism, nostalgia, as well as finding safety behind doing nothing and questioning the band's continued existence.[17] When discussing the group's beginnings, the song references the September 11 attacks by describing Gerard Way’s own experiences that day and what inspired him to create My Chemical Romance.[17] As the song continues, it becomes more optimistic and hopeful, as Gerard Way says to go "against faith".[17] By the end of the track, Gerard Way softly expresses his desire to continue doing nothing ("Yes, it comforts me much more" / "To lay in the foundations of decay") as the song begins to fade out, before he yells "get up, coward".[17][7]Billboard described the song's ending as a "scream-filled free-for-all".[14]
In addition to the covering the band's beginnings, the song also covers Catholic imagery and themes; the phrase about laying in the "foundations of decay" represents incorruptibility and waiting for canonization.[7] In the same verse that references canonization, the song also covers misogyny ("And so he gets to die a saint" / "But she will always be a whore").[22] Cassie Whitt of Alternative Press viewed the verse about the September 11 attacks to be similar to the hero's journey trope, believing that each line of that verse represented a specific stage of the trope: the "call to adventure", the "adventure begins", the "allies made", and the "trials and ordeals". She also believed that the full song could be interpreted as someone refusing to accept the call to adventure until a supernatural force intervenes, represented by the "get up, coward" line.[7]
Critical reception and legacy
Many writers praised the song's composition. Sarah Jamieson of DIY viewed the song as combing the band's past works into one, describing it as a "slow burning offering that swells into frenetic life" throughout its runtime, highlighting the latter half of the song.[23] Ali Shutler of NME considered the song to be the band reinventing themselves, with "fire, urgency and plenty of joy".[17] Mitchell Peters of Billboard highlighted Gerard Way's performance in the song, describing it as "impeccable".[24] Dailey described the song as going from "guitar-stamped rage fests" to "simmering moments of storytelling",[14] while Eli Enis of Revolver described it as their heaviest release since Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004).[25]
Several writers complimented the song's lyrics and themes,[24][26] with Peters writing that it demonstrated My Chemical Romance's storytelling capabilities.[24] Shutler believed that the song's lyrics demonstrated that the band hadn't lost any of its talent during their time separated. They further wrote that while the band writing new music could've been risky due to their past works' reverence, it was "never bogged down with legacy".[17] Jack Rodgers of Rock Sound described it as "six minutes of dark, destitute and dramatic story-telling and world-building" that was unlike anything the band had released up to that point.[26]
Jamieson described the release of the song as a "grand statement" and a "return of epic proportions",[23] while Shutler said it was a "fierce, fearless return".[17] Rodgers described the song as a "defining moment" in the band's return that showed that they "[meant] serious business".[26] In their review of the band's live performance at the Barclays Center in September 2022, Danielle Chelosky of Alternative Press described "The Foundations of Decay" as a quintessential song in My Chemical Romance's discography.[27] In 2025, Moore ranked "The Foundations of Decay" as My Chemical Romance's fifteenth best song, writing that the "wait for new music was well worth it".[20]
Several media outlets listed the song as one of the best to release in 2022,[28][29][26] with the staff teams of The Los Angeles Times and NME ranking it as the twenty-second and twenty-third best song of the year, respectively.[28][29] Suzy Exposito of The Los Angeles Times described the song as a "fist, bursting defiantly from the soil" towards people who thought that emo music was no longer relevant.[29]NME described it as comeback that exceeded the expectations of older and newer emo music fans.[28] Rodgers listed it in an un-ranked list of the year's ten best songs.[26]
Commercial performance
"The Foundations of Decay" debuted at number 132 on the BillboardGlobal 200.[30] In the United States, "The Foundations of Decay" received 497,000 streams and 1,900 digital sales within a few hours of release. It also received 1.1 million radio audience impressions within its first few days.[31] In a Billboard readers poll on the week of its release, the song was voted by over 40% of readers as the best song to release that week.[24] It then went on to peak at number 2 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart,[32] 7 on Hot Rock & Alternative Songs,[33] 11 on Digital Song Sales,[34] and 16 on Rock & Alternative Airplay.[35] On the Year-End charts, "The Foundations of Decay" ranked at number 24 on the US Hot Hard Rock Songs chart.[36] In the United Kingdom, the song reached number 1 on the Rock & Metal chart[37] and number 37 on the UK Singles Chart.[38] It was the band's ninth top 40 single in the country.[39] Elsewhere, the song reached number 7 in New Zealand,[40] 56 in Ireland,[41] 80 in Australia,[42] and 92 in Canada.[43]
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