In this week’s Kerrang! magazine, My Chemical Romance give us an exclusive preview of the as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2006’s The Black Parade.

Frontman Gerard Way has revealed that the emo superstars’ forthcoming album will be a vast departure from the epic grandeur and theatrics of The Black Parade.

“Our original game plan was to make a very quick, very visceral record,” Gerard told Kerrang!, and also revealed that, for the first time ever, this album will not have one overall concept.

“To be able to let go of your game plan is really hard,” he explains. “There were many times where we had to really move on our feet very quickly and say, ‘No, the album’s taking a turn and we need to accept it, because if we fight it we’ll end up with a record that doesn’t make any sense’.”

“Everything is taking so much longer, in a really great way,” he added. “We’ve never been able to go through the songs like this and get things as great as we possibly can. It’s always been like, ‘You’ve got three months to record and two weeks to mix, then you’re back on an airplane to go tour again!’. This time, we afforded ourselves the luxury of exploring every song.”

For the full interview, pick up a copy of this week’s Kerrang! magazine (in stores today).

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My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way has told Rock Sound that fans should get excited as the group put the finishing touches on their fourth album, currently being mixed with Rich Costey in Los Angeles:

“It is pretty safe to say that fans will not only enjoy this new record more than any of our previous albums but I think they will also get a clear picture from it, one that they will like. It is more raw and honest and a better snapshot of the band.”

The singer went on to hint that the album could be My Chemical Romance’s defining work:

“A friend who heard the record recently said he now had no interest in listening to our older work anymore, that we had made all our old material redundant. I took it as a compliment, the next thing you do should always make the last thing seem unimportant and I think that will happen when we finally release this album.”

Excited? Scared? Want to read more from Gerard? Stay tuned to the site and make sure you pick up the next issue of Rock Sound magazine!

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Mixing with our good buddy Rich Costey is going great. So far, he’s mixed 9 songs, and they all sound fucking stellar. He had an interesting process where he started out mixing some of the looser songs first, and then ramped up to the denser stuff. Our goal in mixing is to make it loud, and then make it louder then that. “Still Alive” was an early one, and he brought a real heaviness and aggressiveness to that song. Song is very drum and bass oriented, very different for us, but still rocks at the same time. A bit of Queen influenced guitar harmonies helps on that song.

“Save Yourself” was another early one, a mix of Judas Priest metal and 80′s arena rock. That song went through a lot of different permutations, and finally we settled on this vibe that took us to new territory. We then got into a song called “The Only Hope For Me Is You,” and that’s where things really starting clicking with Rich. What was great was each song would just sound better and bigger than the last. As some of you had guessed from a twitter thing of mine (I refuse to call it a tweet), David Campbell did a bit of work on the record, and that’s one of the songs he arranged for. Costey did this crazy effect with the strings going into the last chorus that blew me away. One of my favorite tracks. (click “read more” for more!)

“Trans Am” and “Death Before Disco” came next. “Disco” you may have heard at the Roxy shows or from Youtube videos of Summersonic. So happy with the way that mix turned out. I have to drive REALLY FAST when I listen to it. I think that’s a hallmark of a great rock song. “Trans Am” is an epic take on “Born To Run” in 4 minutes. When we wrote this song, it was HUGE for us. Really opened our hearts and ears during the writing process. Frank, thanks for noodling and G, good ear to make a song out of it. You guys will love this song. Another favorite. Looking forward to more mixes, we got coming up “Kiss The Ring,” which we also played at Roxy. I really can’t wait for “Black Dragon Fighting Society,” our ode to Misfits punk. Song kinda shreds!

Mixing is a great thing. The ideas continue to flow, and like they say, writing is never done. FYI any of the song titles mentioned are still tentative, you know how we like to change things up!!!

Ray

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Things are still very quiet in MCR-land, but I’m hoping that some more news about the new album will arrive shortly! This just sprang up on Lyn-Z’s Twitter a few hours ago – Halloween costumes! It looks as though Gerard & Lyn-Z went as birds, and baby Bandit went as a hotdog – love it

http://twitpic.com/o70h3 – happy 1st halloween my love. you are a hotdog.
1:41 AM Nov 4th from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/o78vi – family photo. birds, well dressed, and a hot dog. i believe chicago style?
2:46 AM Nov 4th from TwitPic