My Chemical Romance dug deep into their vault of unreleased music to find something special for their recent performance at Dodger Stadium. During the second half of their Los Angeles concert on July 26, the band premiered “War Beneath the Rain,” a song they had crafted prior to their breakup in the early 2010s.
“We were making a record that never came out, and this was one of the songs we really loved from it,” Gerard Way told the audience. “It was just us in the studio with our friend [studio engineer] Doug McKean — he was there recording it. His family’s here tonight. I want this to go out to them.”
McKean was a Grammy Award-winning engineer and producer whose relationship with MCR dates back to 2006’s Welcome to the Black Parade. His career credits also include work with Green Day, Paramore, Simple Plan, and more. He died in July 2022 at the age of 54.
15 years have passed since MCR last released a full-length LP, with 2010’s Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys being their most recent. The band shared their breakup announcement on March 22, 2013. At the time, they were working on their fifth album, tentatively titled The Paper Kingdom.
In May 2022, the band shared the one-off single “The Foundations of Decay,” marking their first new song in nearly a decade. McKean produced the track alongside Mikey Way and Ray Toro. The July 26 concert also saw the tour debut of “Destroya.” The following night, MCR introduced “Cemetery Drive,” “The Foundations of Decay,” “You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison,” and “S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W” to the setlist, too.
MCR’s Long Live The Black Parade Tour will resume on Aug. 2 with a show in Arlington, Texas. The band will make stops in East Rutherford, Philadelphia, Toronto, Chicago, Boston, and Tampa through September.
