10 Greatest Hard Rock Album Openers

By the time My Chemical Romance reached their third record, they were determined to give their audience something they had never seen before. Pulling from classic hard rock bands of the 70's, the band's vision for a concept record resulted in the Black Parade, which became one of the biggest rock records in recent memory. Like all concept records though, we have to get the story underway somewhere.

Starting off in the vein of David Bowie, the overture "The End" is a great way of luring the listener into the album, as we are told about our protagonist's struggles with his cancer diagnosis. By the time the song is done building, it transitions into "Dead!" seemlessly, as we hear the main riff chugging underneath a flatline tone. From there, the song becomes one part hard rock stomper, another part glam rock singalong, as Gerard Way shares some of the most demented lyrics of his career.

The song also gives the listener a ton of background on the story, down to saying that our hero has only a few weeks to live. For as many themes of death that are in this song, both of these tracks take you on a thrillride that will guarantee to get your pulse racing.