We’ll be honest, since My Chemical Romance’s pair of Black Parade shows at When We Were Young last month, we weren’t expecting news from the band anytime soon. But, of course, on a random Monday, from out of nowhere, they’ve just sent the internet into meltdown with a teaser post.
The New Jersey emo titans have taken to Instagram to share a graphic along with the caption: “If you could be anything, what would you be?” Some fans were quick to worry about the fact My Chem’s socials were hacked over the summer, but with guitarist Frank Iero and bassist Mikey Way liking this new post at the time of writing, as well as sharing it to their own personal Instagram Stories and Frank posting it on his Feed, it seems pretty damn official (arrrghhhh!).
So, what of the actual graphic itself? There’s buildings at the bottom and possibly floating bits of paper in the air, and it sort of looks like it says MCR… but also seems like it starts with a K. Is this all pointing to My Chemical Romance’s scrapped concept album The Paper Kingdom, which they’d been working on after Danger Days, before breaking up in 2013? In Kerrang!’s own telling of that unreleased record, we previously explained that it “conceptually centred around the story of a support group made up of parents whose children had died. Unsurprisingly, those present at the sessions described it as the darkest music My Chemical Romance had ever written, with comparisons drawn to experimental alt-rockers Radiohead. A bleak shadow had been cast over the band, and they were making music that, according to Gerard’s close friend and comic book writer Grant Morrison, didn’t sound anything like the MCR we know and love.”
Or is it something else entirely? New tour dates? Actual album number five? It’s been two-and-a-half years since incredible standalone single The Foundations Of Decay, so let’s see…