My Chemical Romance are looking beyond The Black Parade. During their Hollywood Bowl show on Friday night (30 October), Gerard Way told fans the band want to spend 2027 making a new record, with a possible return to live shows in 2028.
For a band whose last studio album arrived sixteen years ago, that is more than a casual hint. But there is an important distinction: no new album, release date or recording schedule has been formally announced. What Way has offered is a clear statement of intent.
Gerard Way looks towards 2027
Speaking at the Los Angeles venue during the band’s Long Live The Black Parade celebrations, Way said: “Next year, we wanna go make a record.” He also suggested the band would probably step away from performing while they worked, telling the audience he hoped to see them again in 2028.
The comments build on what Way said in San Antonio in September, when he acknowledged that My Chemical Romance had long wanted to make another album. At the time, he stopped short of offering a timetable. Now there is at least a year in mind.
Sixteen years since Danger Days
My Chemical Romance’s fourth and most recent studio album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, came out in 2010. The group split in 2013 and reunited in 2019, releasing the standalone single ‘The Foundations of Decay’ in 2022.
That long gap matters. A fifth album would not simply be another instalment in the band’s catalogue; it would be their first full-length statement since the reunion, made by musicians who have spent recent years watching an entirely new generation embrace their music.
There was another reminder of the band’s history at the Hollywood Bowl: The Used frontman Bert McCracken joined Way onstage, reviving a collaboration closely associated with the early My Chemical Romance era. The night also brought a rare live outing for ‘We Don’t Need Another Song About California’.
More than a nostalgia tour?
The timing is striking. Twenty years after The Black Parade became a defining alternative-rock record, its anniversary has put My Chemical Romance’s past back in the spotlight. Yet the most interesting development may be their willingness to move beyond it.
At Imminent Infinity, we’ve already explored the moment My Chemical Romance’s music connected across generations, as well as the rediscovery of a song from The Black Parade era. Both stories underline the same point: this is a band whose older work is still finding new life.
What a new My Chemical Romance record would actually sound like remains an open question. The theatrical ambition of The Black Parade, the vivid world-building of Danger Days and the weight of ‘The Foundations of Decay’ suggest there is no single obvious route forward.
For now, fans have something concrete to anticipate: not a confirmed album release in 2027, but the band’s stated intention to make one. After sixteen years without a studio LP, that is news enough.
