The Paper Kingdom (also referred to as MCR5)[1] is an unreleased studio album by the American rock band My Chemical Romance. It would have been the band's fifth studio album. Work on it began in early 2012, set to be a concept album with a story about a support group of parents whose children had died. Those who were present during the album's writing sessions described it as alternative rock and gothic-sounding, drawing comparisons between the band's sound and Radiohead.
The album's writing was highly impacted by the mental health of the band members. Gerard Way, despite his depression and lack of motivation, pushed himself to write music anyways, leading to the creation of the support group story. He was not satisfied with this story, and the band overall suffered from a lack of direction. In March 2013, My Chemical Romance announced their break up, and The Paper Kingdom was scrapped. One song from the album, "Fake Your Death", was included as part of their greatest hits album May Death Never Stop You (2014). According to guitarist Frank Iero, the rest of the project was unsalvageable. It was later subject to rampant speculation and multiple leaks, culminating in the album being leaked online in its entirety in 2026.
Overview and music
The Paper Kingdom was going to be a concept album, telling the story of a support group of parents whose children had died,[2][3][4] and would make up a narrative about how their children were actually lost in the woods fighting against a witch.[4][5] The style of music being written for the album was described by those present at its writing and recording sessions as the darkest music the band had ever written. Some described it as alternative rock and "gothic", drawing comparisons between the band's sound and Radiohead.[6][2] One of the people present at the sessions was comic book artist Grant Morrison, who said that the music almost didn't sound like My Chemical Romance at all.[2]
Development
The Paper Kingdom was going to feature My Chemical Romance's touring musicians James Dewees (left, pictured in 2014) and Jarrod Alexander (right, pictured in 2022). Dewees assisted with writing the record and became an official member of the band by the end of the year.
After touring concluded for their previous album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, My Chemical Romance reconvened in early 2012 to begin work on their fifth studio album,[6][7] with the working title of The Paper Kingdom.[2][4][5] They rented out a space in Los Angeles to convert into their own recording studio. The band hoped that, with their own space, they would be able to write new music whenever they wanted to rather than having to adhere to a strict recording deadline. Their touring keyboardist James Dewees was going to be included as part of the writing sessions for the album.[6] Furthermore, their touring drummer Jarrod Alexander was set to perform on the record.[8][6]
Recording sessions started in June 2012,[8] with audio engineer Doug McKean helping with production.[9] In an interview on Spoilers with Kevin Smith, front man Gerard Way stated that progress on the album was going "rather quickly" and described it as "very dark so far".[10] In early 2013, Way told Kerrang! that six songs for the album were complete.[11] When the band wasn't working on the music itself, they would instead work on designing costumes and stage sets related to it.[5] These costumes were set to be designed by Colleen Atwood, who had previously done costume work with the band starting with The Black Parade (2006).[10]
The direction of the album was highly influenced by the mental health of the band members at the time, specifically Way.[3] He wanted to try and replicate the success of The Black Parade, as Danger Days wasn't as much of a cultural phenomenon.[3] Despite his depressive state at the time and lack of motivation to create music–which he referred to as "the haze", he pushed himself to write anyways, leading to the creation of the support group story concept. In an interview, he said that it was "not a story I wanted to tell – and the songs reflected that, you could hear it. All the joy was just gone." Frank Iero described the making of the album as bleak, and the music itself as having a "weird sparseness to it", and even though that over an hour of music had been conceptualized, most of it was unfinished. Furthermore, he later stated that the band overall struggled with direction at the time, and was generally unable to make decisions on where to take the music.[6]
On March 22, 2013, My Chemical Romance officially announced their break up.[2]The Paper Kingdom was scrapped completely.[12][11] In an interview with My Chemical Romance biographer Tom Bryant, Iero told him that nothing worthwhile had come out of the album's writing sessions, and that if anything positive had come out of it, the album likely wouldn't have been scrapped and the band would not have broken up.[6] One of the songs that was intended to be part of The Paper Kingdom, "Fake Your Death", was later included in the band's greatest hits album May Death Never Stop You (2014),[13] poised as the band's final song.[14][15] Prior to the album's release, it was released as a single on February 17, 2014.[16] According to Iero, it was the only song from The Paper Kingdom that was suitable for release, and that the rest of it was likely unsalvageable.[17] In a 2014 interview, Way stated that he might revisit The Paper Kingdom's story in the future, though it could be through a different medium.[5]
Legacy
Some material published by the band, such as this logo used for the Long Live The Black Parade tour, were speculated by fans as alluding to The Paper Kingdom
Since the band's reunion in 2019, there have been several instances where fans have tried to connect the band's promotional material to The Paper Kingdom, believing that the band was teasing the completion and release of the project.[1][18][11]Blunt Magazine described it as "unreleased gem that’s become a thing of fan lore".[19] Media that fans connected to The Paper Kingdom includes certain imagery from the band's initial reunion announcements[1] and a video that they released titled "An Offering...", which was speculated by some as being a possible song title, and by others as related to the project.[18] Similarly, when My Chemical Romance released a teaser in 2024, several people noticed that the initials for The Paper Kingdom, when translated into Russian and then rotated, roughly resembled the logo present within the teaser.[11] The teaser ended up being for the band's Long Live The Black Parade tour (2025).[20]
In 2022, a user on an internet forum (under the username of "Excalibur") claimed to have the entirety of The Paper Kingdom and posted an offer allowing users to purchase the demos for $15,000. He claimed that the album featured twelve tracks, and posted three snippets of alleged tracks, named "Dark Cloud", "Wake Up!", and "Witch". The snippets were taken down shortly afterwards for copyright, and only one user seemingly purchased the album before the posts with any mentions of The Paper Kingdom were covered up.[19] On February 1, 2026, an unfinished workprint of the full album was leaked online by an unknown source.[21]
During the band's performance in Los Angeles on July 26, 2025, they played a song titled "War Beneath the Rain", which was intended to be a part of The Paper Kingdom.[22][23][24] The song was dedicated to McKean's family, who was in attendance.[22] "War Beneath the Rain" was later played again on August 2, during their performance in Arlington, Texas, as a show closer.[25]
Track listing
The following track listing, and track lengths, are taken from the leaked workprint of the album in February 2026, as reported by Jason Tate.[21] It is not an official track list,[21] and only two of these tracks, "Fake Your Death" and "War Beneath the Rain", have been confirmed by the band themselves to be planned for the record.[13][22][24] Furthermore, according to Louder Sound, the album was going to have a song called "Into Your Arms", though it is absent from the workprint track list.[24]
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