The O-town Scene - Oneonta, NY
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/20734
My Chemical Romance’s ‘Danger Days’ raises hell My Chemical Romance has never been a rock band to exercise modesty or subtlety. Their breakout album, “Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge,” show- cased the energy of a young group of Jersey guys wrecking through melodramatic and heart-wrenching songs. 2006’s “The Black Pa- rade” was a theatrical concept album about death, and was part of a full-on marketing shtick involving alter-egos, extravagant live shows, and enough merchandising to fully stock your local Hot Topic. My Chemical Romance’s new release, “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys,” is a somewhat revelatory contradiction: the band evolving, yet sticking to their core values. First off, “Danger Days” is in no way an “emo” album, in content or style. The group traded in their “Black Parade” persona for a neo-futuristic gang of rebels, looking to upthrow the establishment and live by no rules. Lyrically speaking, “Danger Days” is an almost complete 180-degree turn from “The Black Parade,” from death, despair and regret to fighting for a bet- ter future and raising hell. The new album definitely has its share of punk-flavored theatrics, with soaring choruses and shredding guitar solos, all of which seem like they were written with arena-filled fist-pumping in mind. Mikey Way is even more of a showman than ever, leading the Killjoys “revolu- tion” with swagger and somewhat obnoxious rock howling. While the new album is considered to have a concept with characters and a story, the plot itself is very loose. After a while the themes of youth and rebellion just feel recycled in different variations without The most rewarding song is “DE- STROYA,” with its eerie percussion intro and the heaviest and most aggressive delivery and attitude on the album. It owes much of its style to Smashing Contributed The new album has its share of punk- flavored theatrics ... which seem like they were written with arena-filled fist-pumping in mind. any development. Also, most of the tracks in the first half or so of the album kind of blend together and sound like a big barrage of rock attitude. “Danger Days” starts to really diver- sify with the heavy balladry, falsetto and driving acoustic guitars of “S/C/ A/R/E/C/R/O/W.” Next is “Sum- mertime,” a particularly puzzling song due to its striking similarities to a song released by Taking Back Sunday last year similarly titled “Summer, Man.” Pumpkins, a la “Cherub Rock” and “Zero.” Most people would claim that while My Chemical Romance has pizazz, the group’s not really one for substance. “Danger Days” does, in fact, rock, but without much depth or reason. It’s high-energy and loud, and it may be attractive for the mainstream modern rock listener, but is not essential to the rest. _ Adam Sisenwein Like us, digitally. We’re on Facebook at O-Town Scene 6 O-Town Scene Dec. 2, 2010