It was their follow up to The Black Parade, but they scrapped it before starting fresh with Danger Days.

Anyhow they released it like two years ago over the course of 5 weeks in two track increments. Anyhow if you haven't heard, half of it has a little Black Flag to it, a little garage, while the other half gets all REO Speedwagon/Cutting Crew/Journey... and all of it was pretty convincing.

I go through their entire catalog a few times a year and it dawned on me that they can easily pull off at least 4 different eras/flavors of rock music. I suppose this will come across as a little "Stan" of me, but looking back it's pretty impressive for a group to be able to encompass so many elements, eras, and styles of rock music, clearly reference so many other groups and songs, and yet retain their own voice and avoid coming across like some retro wave rider.

Perhaps I'm overcompensating for the general lack of recognition they received but from where I stand they were genuinely special even if they were never transcendent. If you're fan but didn't catch Conventional Weapons, it's worthwhile.

-Sig-

“Why didn’t you do this in your own god damn country?"

-All Stah's view on undocumented immigrants wanting to be treated like human beings.