My Chemical Romance Welcome You To The Black Parade

My Chemical Romance became so engulfed in the concept of their forthcoming album that they adopted an alter-ego called The Black Parade on the record of the same name that's due in stores on October 24 via Warner Bros.

The disc follows a fictional storyline that revolves around a character named "the Patient" who may have gone through chemotherapy and mentally relives some of his experiences as he's about to die. The musical mortality tale weighed heavily on the group as they recorded it.

"There was a certain point where it was so dark for us that it felt like we needed to become much more than brothers and we also needed to become a new band," singer Gerard Way said during an online media conference on the weekend.

"We really did it this time and became a different band. Make no mistake, we are My Chemical Romance still. It's just our alter ego for this record."

The New Jersey group will perform the album's first single, "Welcome To The Black Parade," on the MTV Video Music Awards' Red Carpet On The Rock pre-show on Thursday. Other songs that will be included on the Rob Cavallo-produced record include "Cancer," "Welcome," "Famous Last Words," "Sleep" and "I Don't Love You.""The album is very symphonic-sounding, like five guys playing together more so than they ever have in their lives," said guitarist Ray Toro. "It's this tapestry of great sounds, and it's really, really epic."

You can't get much more epic than Liza Minnelli, the Cabaret star who will make a guest appearance on the follow-up to 2004's Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. Way invited her to take part because she was his late grandmother's favourite performer.