If you haven’t already heard, My Chemical Romance (MCR) announced their break-up on March 22 of last year.

This alternative rock band started out in 2001 in New Jersey with lead-vocalist Gerard Way, bassist Mikey Way, guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro, and drummer Matt Pelissier.

Their final album, “May Death Never Stop You: The Greatest Hits 2001-2013,” was released on March 25 of this year. It’s a 19-track compilation of MCR’s most famous songs.

“I have always liked to listen to them,” said senior Kacey Lew. “It brought an escape like most music does for me. Their specific style and their specific lyrics just hit home with me.”

Included in this radical assortment is their last single, “Fake Your Death,” and three songs from their first recording session. The band refers to these as the “attic demos” because they were recorded in Pelissier’s attic.

“Fake Your Death” was worked on by all members of the band at a time when they were not yet aware of the end to come. The lyrics appropriately fit that situation and, as stated by Gerard Way, serve as a “eulogy for the band.”

The three attic demos include their first song ever, “Skylines and Turnstiles,” influenced by Gerard Way’s feelings of his first-hand account of the 9/11 tragedy. It was this horrific account that prompted Gerard to refect on his life and start MCR with Pelissier.

Among the two other attic demos are “Knives/Sorrow,” and “Cubicles.” The songs later became tracks on their first album “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love.”

“May Death Never Stop You” features songs from albums “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love,” “Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge,” “The Black Parade,” and “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.”

Of the songs, some of the most notable are “Welcome to the Black Parade,” “Helena (So Long and Goodnight),” “Na Na Na,” “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” “Teenagers,” and “Famous Last Words.”

“The band started off with darker music, which reflected with how they were feeling,” said junior Gabrielle Silva.  “The songs were depressing, but as they went on, the songs weren’t as dark.”

Their second album, “Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge” came out in 2004. Popular songs from the album included “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” “The Ghost of You,” and “You Know What They Do to Guys Like us in Prison.”

The album as a whole possessed aggressive amounts of energy like the first album and is looked back upon as classic MCR music.

In 2006, the band’s third and most well-known album, “The Black Parade,” was released.

“‘The Black Parade’ was the first album I listened to and it’s definitely my favorite,” said junior Jordan Bumanlag.  “I really connected with the one part in ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ when he says ‘I’m just a man. I’m not a hero. Just a boy who wants to sing his song’.”

The album largely alluded to death. The lyrics were intense and dark, but the songs like “Dead!,” “Famous Last Words,” and “Welcome to the Black Parade” were meant to be and are uplifting, lively, and inspiring.

The next two albums were “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” (from which the term “killjoy,” or fan of MCR came about) and “Conventional Weapons.”

Both of these retained MCR’s unique sound but had blatantly happier lyrics.

Following the storyline of the music videos for “Na Na Na” and “Sing!,” the comic “The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” would come into the making written by Gerard Way himself and Shaun Simon, and drawn by Becky Cloonan. It would tell the story of a girl who would fight against a corporation (Better Living Industries) that was trying to strip people of their individuality.

“I really, really liked the message that they sent and who they were as people,” said junior Shalaka Phadnis. “And I like how there was no disconnect between them as people and their music.”

MCR has touched the lives of countless Killjoys. Their songs give the feeling that “you’re not in this alone” and that however you’re feeling, you should know that it’s okay to be messed up and that it’s okay to be different.

My Chemical Romance has made a difference to many individuals, and their memory will carry on.