The name of the first track is titled, “The End!” but that song itself doesn’t begin to describe the 12 tracks from My Chemical Romance.

The New Jersey quintet’s third CD Welcome to the Black Parade (Reprise/Warner Bros. Records) is one album that fans should have in their collection because to be honest, death has never sounded so good.

What makes the album is appealing is the clever songwriting for each track, like the lead single, “Welcome to the Black Parade” with lyrics such as, “When I was a young boy/My father took me into the city/to see a marching band/He said son when you grow up/Would you be the savior of the broken/The beaten and the damned.” And of course the mournful voice of lead singer Gerard Way.

The album surrounds a character named “The Patient” who dies from cancer and afterward has the opportunity to reflect back on the life he lived.

Without the voice of Way this would be just another album but Way and the other four in the band, Michael Way, Ray Toro, Bob Bryar, and Frank Iero make their debut album Three Cheer for Sweet Revenge that was released in 2004 seem like an amateur did it.

But the amateur act is nowhere to be found in this album.

When the band based the music around the character “The Patient” and he dies from cancer the songs that describe what he went through with chemotherapy treatments are expressed in the song, “Cancer” with the lyrics, “Now turn away/’Cause I’m awful just to see/’Cause all my hair abandoned all my body,” and to finally coming to terms with having cancer, in the song, “Famous Last Words.”

My Chemical Romance has grown up and that is further reflected in the album and perhaps it is a wonder why the band didn’t think to release this type of music beforehand.

No, need to worry about the direction of My Chemical Romance; they have gone to a more challenging area of its music.

However, the rock music that has made My Chemical Romance fame in a short amount of time is not the only thing. Liza Minnelli makes a surprise appearance with guest vocals on the song, “Mama.”

Perhaps because of the music that My Chemical Romance plays or the singles that air on the radio, fans would have thought that the band wouldn’t have added the vocals of the actress….you were wrong. There is always an open door to possibilities.

Bands get inspired from things that happen and if a lead singer like Way is inspired by death to get a message around then just like My Chemical Romance and this album fans will have to see what is next.

What fans will appreciate is the music that tears to the heart because it will relate to people who have loved one who have been diagnosed with cancer or a family member who has died from cancer.

There is no way a fan or a person who is not that will not play this album more than once because of what the music is about.