The Patient

My Chemical Romance is probably one of the first bands that come to mind when someone mentions the word “Emo”. Yet, ironically, as is the case with many bands labelled “Emo”, the band does not consider itself as such. “Emo is a pile of s***,” Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance stated in an interview, claiming that his band “was never emo”.

My Chemical Romance’s album “The Black Parade” is a concept album, centring on a character known as “The Patient”. Dan Martin from “New Musical Express” compared the album to Green Day’s “American Idiot”, stating that “[it] will challenge every preconception you ever had about the people who made it.” Indeed the album challenges every stereotype that the band is a group of self-hating, rebels against society, and expresses an emotionally gripping tale of the tragic death of a cancer patient.

Listeners are introduced to The Patient with “The End”, a sad realisation of the character’s impending death. The following songs focus on his thoughts and fears about death and the memories he has of his life. The single “Welcome to the Black Parade” is a tale of The Patient’s fondest memory, being taken to a parade as a child. The Patient accepts death in “Famous Last Words”, and death comes for him in the form of a parade, an expression of Gerard Way’s belief that death comes for a person in the form of their fondest memory.