CFNN Rock Correspondant Dana Murray

In the 2000s, popular music was dominated by artists such as Britney Spears, Beyoncé, and Usher. On the other side of the equation, bands like Slipknot, Kittie, and Linkin Park made up the metal scene. In the middle of these two genres, there was emo: an angsty, confessional style of music with a hard rock edge, characterized by bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Paramore. As the 2000s progressed into the 2010s, older bands morphed into alt-pop and new bands introduced screamo, a heavier style that leaned more into metal than it did traditional emo. For years, this genre was seen by most as practically dead. However, it started showing strong signs of life this year.

2026 is significant for emo fans for many reasons, but it is heavily important due to the 20th anniversary of My Chemical Romance’s hit third album The Black Parade. Earlier this year, the band embarked on their Long Live the Black Parade tour, which was a continuation of the story the album laid out in 2006. During this tour, The Black Parade is the national band of a fictional country called Draag, which is under a Soviet-era dictatorship. The Black Parade is forced to perform for the country’s leader, The Grand Immortal Dictator. In true MCR fashion, the lore was complicated (complete with an entire language for fans to decipher) and the stage sets were elaborate. This coincided with the release of the 20th anniversary box set of The Black Parade, which shot to number one on the Billboard Top 200. It marks the first anniversary release to hit number one on the Top 200 and the band’s first number one album.

While the tour was a massive success, MCR had another trick up their sleeves. At the end of the band’s run of shows at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, lead singer Gerard Way mentioned that the band would not be touring in 2027 since they would be in the studio. In the videos of this moment that are circulating social media, you can hear the crowd erupting into ecstatic screams when the announcement was made. The concept that the band could be working on a fifth album, or MCR5, has been circulating since the band broke up in 2013 and had a massive resurgence when they got back together in 2019. Fans have quickly made memes about being “MCR5 truthers” that had believed in MCR5 from the get-go.

My Chemical Romance isn’t the only emo band that’s teasing something new. Fall Out Boy has been making cryptic posts on Instagram that seem to tease a new album. So far, a tour called “Twilight of the Punks” has been announced featuring The Offspring and Good Charlotte and a single, “ACES,” has been released. The song sounds like it was an outtake from Fall Out Boy’s sophomore album From Under the Cork Tree, just without the ridiculously long title. As a fan of their older albums, I’m absolutely elated that they’re bringing their classic sound back.

I’m theorizing that Fall Out Boy is planning to release an album soon as well. The recent posts have had the theme of a fictional old-school mall called Twilight Parks, complete with a website. There have been mentions of arcades where you can win prizes (they actually work, you can be chosen to get an alien plushie mailed to you) and a food court, but no stores yet. I think that the stores in the mall are meant to be the songs on the new album. Fall Out Boy has done some interactive things to promote their past albums, so it would only make sense.

I’m usually of the opinion that the classics need to be left alone, but I’m here for the emo revival. In middle school, I was a total emo kid that longed to have been around when my favorite bands were releasing albums. This revival is for 13-year-old me whose first concert was My Chemical Romance. It’s healing a part of me that I didn’t know needed to be healed. If I couldn’t be around for the releases of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and From Under the Cork Tree, this is the next best thing.