My Chemical Romance — The Black Parade

My Chemical Romance's third album, The Black Parade, is ushered in with the sounds of a beeping heart rate monitor, soaring guitars and a sombre funeral march in "The End." The Black Parade, co-produced by Rob Cavallo, is a modern rock opera much in the same vein as Green Day's American Idiot.

The five New Jersey rockers in MCR have really evolved. The shredding guitar solos, melancholy ballads and upbeat rockers are still here, but this time around everything is more confident and epic. In keeping with the album's tale of a dying and war-torn cancer patient, there are trumpets ("Dead!"), marching drum rolls and anthems ("Welcome To The Black Parade"), while Gerard Way's wails are even more tortured than before ("The Sharpest Lives"). Standout track "Mama," a sort of cabaret punk waltz, features the strains of a music box, the sound of dropping bombs and an eerie appearance from Liza Minnelli as "Mother War."

The Black Parade is a majestic, circus-of-death celebration that proves just how grand it is to embrace the dark side.

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