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My Chemical Romance Channel Judas Priest, 'Blade Runner' on New Album

My Chemical Romance
The name Trans-Am conjures up a lot of images -- muscle cars, hard rock, stadium tailgating, football. These are things fans might not normally associate with My Chemical Romance and frontman Gerard Way is the first one to admit that. "The fact there's a song now tentatively titled 'Trans-Am' is a bold thing for this band to do as opposed to our previous material," he tells Spinner of one of the tracks on the band's eagerly anticipated 2010 album. "There's something in that phrase that's obviously more than the car. But to bring something like old '70s muscle car culture into the music, that's kind of different move."

That difference can be heard in the opening of the rocking partier 'Death Before Disco,' which features a vibe similar to Judas Priest's 'Living After Midnight.' "That's my favorite Priest song," Way says, admitting there is some '80s flavor on the disc. He credits 'Trans-Am' for freeing those influences up.

"That song actually reminded me in an odd way of all the best stuff of '80s what is called cock rock, but not all of it was," Way says. "Judas Priest is considered metal, but it's great rock 'n' roll. It's having nothing to do with that era of metal, the hair rock, but then having everything to do with like the birth of power-anthem metal. After 'Trans Am,' that started to really bleed into the record."

Judas Priest wasn't the only '80s influence on the new music. The band also turned to one of the decade's cinema classics as well. "I watched a lot of 'Blade Runner' and I watched a lot of the 'Making of Blake Runner.' Ridley Scott was really inspiring too, just kind of his unwillingness to put the camera down and really capture something special. He wasn't trying to make 'Star Wars,'" Way says. "People were upset by that, but he was very strong in his vision and I think the band was very strong in its vision this time. That's why the record took -- instead of a month and a half to do -- four months to track because our barometer for great was very high."

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7 Comments

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Ann Serra

I'm 45 years old and a huge fan of MCR. I had a liver transplant 6 months after "The Black Parade" came out. It really nailed what it feels like to be one of the walking dead. That was me as I waited for a donor. As I tell my kids - music is a matter of personal meaning - so don't diss any art just because YOU don't connect to it emotionally. I do hate that MCR has distanced themselves from a record that meant so much to so many. I am not afraid to keep on living......

January 27 2010 at 5:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
DeathB4Disco

I'm so looking forward to this album, you can see they've really evolved...yet seem to be circuling back to 'BULLETS' Which, BTW, is a good thing. I like the way he uses not only musics to inspire him but movies and themes and, well...everything.
1) EVERYTHING must be EMO because emo= EMOtion and if you don't have emotion in music, you're literally just jingles and sellouts.
2) the whole look behind 'EMO' Is actually scene.
3) EMO is therefor one of those phrases that just don't make sense.
AND
4) WHY STEREOTYPE?

January 17 2010 at 6:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
some dude

I do kind of wonder if half of the people who go on about Priest being a hair metal band have even heard any of their albums that came out either side of the 80s.

January 15 2010 at 6:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Holly

I seriously am dying for this album, and uhum, if you hate the band please stop bothering the fans about it ...
and just for the record MCR fans are not all so called "EMOS" whatever.. their fans range from 8 to 60,70 in age all gender and race and countries so please stop with the emo fan teeny lables *rolls eyes*

January 15 2010 at 12:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cassie

'Metal Hammer' has decided to use this article (without citing it by link, may I add) for misquote evil:

http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/news/my-chemical-romances-gerard-way-questions-judas-priests-metal/

December 29 2009 at 4:12 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Siobhan

Eagerly anticipated album? By whom? Most of the emo teens have already outgrown this band which is obviously too afraid to create something on their own and thus has to resort to other bands' hard work and ideas all the time.
Didn't Gerard Way use to speak about the previous album in the same pretentious manner only to distance himself from the catastrophe that was The Black Parade while promoting his new album now? I wonder what he will be saying after he realizes that the new record won't be as successful as he hoped? Will he also trash-talk it like he did with the other albums?

December 23 2009 at 12:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Siobhan's comment
Tammy

You're seriously asking WHO is anticipating this album?
MCR might not be popular with you or the people you know, but it sure is over here!

And Gerard's not saying he's copying other bands' work or anything, they just INFLUENCE and INSPIRE his work. He's an amazing, unique musician.

January 02 2010 at 10:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply