A band begins its last goodbye with “Fake Your Death.”
My Chemical Romance announced last year that the band was breaking up in the midst of recording its fifth album. Very little news has been heard from MCR since then, until Monday with the release of the trailer for its greatest hits CD/DVD “May Death Never Stop You,” which is also a music video to the song “Fake Your Death.”
Soon after its release, #FakeYourDeath became one of the top trends on Twitter.
“Fake Your Death” would have been a single released onto the fifth album, but as it was never finished, the song will be released as part of the band’s greatest hits album. It is the last song the band says it will ever release.
The song will be available to anyone who preorders “May Death Never Stop You,” on iTunes and is currently streaming on MCR’s website: mychemicalromance.com.
The song starts off with a piano introduction, which sets the solemn mood for it. The tune works well in conjunction with the video, which begins by zooming in on the statue in a graveyard that resembles the band’s former front man, Gerard Way.
Amidst the graffiti on the statue is the name of one of the band’s songs, “The End.”
As the song progresses, the video provides a view into the “eye” of the statue and shows scenes from different music videos the band had released. It also shows some behind-the-scenes shots of MCR as well as different bloopers from the music video.
Some of the clips featured in this music video include “Famous Last Words,” “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “Na Na Na.”
The video ends with the scene from “Helena” where the band closes the casket in the hearse, followed by a zoom out from the statue’s other eye and a zoom out from the statue itself.
The video has a sort of sentimentality that plays well with the song, but it also does a good job of advertising and promoting “May Death Never Stop You.”
If it’s said that an album’s music should rise and fall, that’s definitely the case with MCR. The band began with the album “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love,” then climaxed with the next two albums – “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge” and “The Black Parade – fell a little bit with “Danger Days” and rose again with “Fake Your Death,” which is probably one of the best songs the band has ever composed.
The song incorporates all of the sentimental components of MCR, but also has the strong lyrics the band is well-known for. Although it’s not nearly as intense as some other MCR songs have been, it’s still a very powerful song and a great way to end a band’s career.
That is, unless the band is faking it. Only time will tell.
“May Death Never Stop You,” will be released March 25. If you preorder the album on the band’s website for $34.99, the album, which includes the CD and DVD, comes with a T-shirt and a funeral brassard.
KHADIJA DJELLOULI
