Ever since My Chemical Romance reunited in 2019, there was renewed hope among fans that the band would release new content. The elephant in the room was the band’s scrapped would-be 5th album, The Paper Kingdom. The band began working on the album in 2012 and appeared to be making serious progress, but broke up before they could finish it. Speculation on the album ran widespread for years after the reunion, with some fans cautiously optimistic that new music was coming while others remained skeptical.
Everything changed on January 31, 2026, when to the shock of the alt-rock community, 15 unreleased songs from the scrapped album were leaked to the public on an online forum.
The leak forced an awkward question on the community: is it ethical to listen to music the band did not want to be released? Other questions about the leak itself also remain open. Who did it? How were the songs obtained? Why were they leaked and not sold to private buyers? Various theories have been offered to answer these questions but conflicting information remains widespread. In this article we’ll go over each notable event leading up to the leak to try to paint a more clear picture of what really happened, starting with the Danger Days era in 2010 and ending with the aftermath of the leak.
Before diving into the timeline, there are a few notes. To avoid legal issues, this article contains no links to leaked material. Leaked song titles will also go unnamed except in cases where the band themselves acknowledged them publicly, such as “The War Beneath the Rain.” The forum where the leaks originated will also go unnamed to avoid directing readers toward copyrighted material. We’ll also be cautious around fan theories regarding how the songs were obtained, as those claims touch on sensitive matters. With that said, we hope you find this timeline useful.
2010 – 2013: Danger Days, hints on new album, progress.
On November 22, 2010, My Chemical Romance released their fourth studio album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. The album is described as having a bright and vibrant aesthetic, a break from the dark and serious tones of the band’s previous albums, The Black Parade, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, and I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. To support the album, MCR launched the World Contamination Tour in 2010. As the band was finishing up their last tour stops in 2012, members started dropping hints of a new album.
February 1, 2012: MCR gets a studio in LA to work on next album
In an interview with noise11 journalist Tim Cashmere, MCR guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro revealed that they got a studio in LA where they hope to work on new music with the help of audio engineer Doug McKean. During the interview, Toro shared the frustration of making a record under time constraints, going on to say that “now we’ll have our own place where we can go and make music 24 hours a day. It’s gonna be great!”
This interview is significant as it was the first time that the album was referenced by the media. “My Chemical Romance Build Studio For Album Number Five” was the headline used by noise11. The full article can be found archived here, and you can watch the interview here.
May 15, 2012: MCR only a month away from tracking
“Tracking” refers to a stage in music production where individual instruments and vocals are recorded one-by-one so they can be mixed later. In a May 15, 2012, article by The Aquarian Weekly, guitarist Frank Iero was asked in an email interview about the progress on the album. Frank replied that he “can’t wait to start tracking,” and that they were “maybe a month away from the record button lighting up.”
You can read the full article here. The Aquarian article was also picked up by other magazines. New Musical Express published their own article about the interview the next day.
June 11, 2012: ‘Fake Your Death’ is written
On March 25, 2014, MCR released a greatest hits compilation album called May Death Never Stop You, featuring a song called “Fake Your Death.” In a statement released along with the song, MCR’s lead singer Gerard Way said that the song was “written while the Los Angeles Kings beat the New Jersey Devils and won the Stanley Cup,” and that the band arrived to the studio after the game to add elements and flesh out the song.
The hockey game referenced by Gerard was the 2012 Stanley Cup Final on June 11, 2012. This lines up with Frank Iero’s earlier statement that the band was only a month away from recording.
August 12, 2012: Gerard Way shares details on the next album
On August 12, 2012, Gerard appeared on an episode of “Spoilers” with Kevin Smith. During the interview, Smith asked Gerard when the next album was coming, to which Gerard said that he doesn’t know, but that it’s “going rather quickly” and that “it’s very dark so far.” This was the first hint that the band was now moving away from the bright and vibrant aesthetic of Danger Days and back towards the dark and serious tones of their earlier albums.
September 28-30, 2012: Andy Greenwald sees Gerard Way at MorrisonCon
In late September of 2012, according to a later released interview with Gerard Way, Andy Greenwald saw Gerard at the MorrisonCon in Las Vegas, a convention by comic book writer Grant Morrison. Greenwald said Gerard spoke “very animatedly” about the new MCR record, and that they “had just started tracking.” This means that by September of 2012, the band was still excited about the new album and was now in the tracking phase.
The interview which this event was referenced in was published in September of 2014, after Gerard released his personal album Hesitant Alien on September 29, 2014. Gerard Way is mentioned to be on the guest list for MorrisonCon in a 2012 Hollywood Reporter article. We will come back to Greenwald’s Interview with Gerard later.
March 9, 2013: Mat Devine reveals he heard 4 songs from the album
By March 2013, the community was excited about the upcoming album and the band had reportedly made lots of progress since September of 2012.
In a March 9, 2013 issue of the Kerrang! magazine, Kill Hannah vocalist Mat Devine revealed some interesting information about the album while discussing his collaboration with Gerard Way. A photo of the page on the internet archive shows the article where Devine describes the album as “a slightly new territory; it’s an evolution,” before going on to reveal that so far there are six songs in the album, and he’s heard four of them.
On the surface, things seemed to be going good for the band, which is why the next event on the timeline caught fans by surprise.
March 22, 2013: My Chemical Romance announces breakup
After producing 4 studio albums between 2001 and 2013, My Chemical Romance announced its breakup through a post on their own website.
Days later, Gerard Way released a poetic note about the breakup, sharing that during the Asbury Park concert on May 19th, 2012, a strange inside voice started whispering to him, “it whispered, and said to me briefly, plainly, and kindly- what it had to say. What it said is between me and the voice” Gerard wrote. He went on to share that in the following months he stopped listening to music and started “slipping into old habits,” going on to say that “All of the vibrancy I used to see became de-saturated. Lost.”
And so marked the end of this chapter of My Chemical Romance.
2014 – 2019: Split, personal projects, reunion
With the band now broken up, it was unclear if the completed songs from the album would ever be released. By this point, all we knew about the album was that it was “very dark.” We still didn’t know what the album was called and what it was about. The years between the band’s breakup and eventual reunion give us many answers and important developments.
February 17, 2014: MCR releases ‘Fake Your Death’
Fake Your Death is an important track in this story as it was written while the band was working on the next album. Fake Your Death was also one of the 16 songs included in the January 31, 2026 leak. It was the only song included in the leak that was already released publicly as a studio version. The song was released by MCR on February 17, 2014, and was included as part of their greatest hits compilation album called May Death Never Stop You. The song came with a message by Gerard Way that we analyzed in a previous entry.
September 30, 2014: Gerard Way reveals info about MCR5 on Andy Greenwald’s podcast
On September 29, 2014, Gerard Way released a solo album titled Hesitant Alien. The next day, Andy Greenwald released his podcast interview with Gerard Way where the two spoke for close to an hour, revealing a goldmine of information about what would have been MCR’s 5th album. During the interview, Gerard referred several times to “the record that didn’t get made” and described it as “extremely dark.” Gerard went on to describe the album in detail as being about “a support group of parents who are dealing with the loss of their children.” Greenwald then asks, “Did you have a name for it?” to which Gerard says
Yeah, it was called The Paper Kingdom.
And with that interview, fans finally had a name for the album and what it was about. It was indeed dark and was touching on real social taboos like the loss of children. Gerard also talked about his new album, and the breakup of the band. You can listen to the podcast episode on ESPN.
October 31, 2019: My Chemical Romance announces reunion.
After a six-year split, My Chemical Romance was back. The band announced their reunion tour on October 31, 2019 with a show in Los Angeles scheduled for December 20, 2019. The tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and only resumed in 2022. With the reunion of the band came renewed hope and active discussions among fans on whether the band would ever release The Paper Kingdom.
2022 – 2024: The first leaks
Several major events happen in this time period, giving rise to fan theories about how the eventual leaks had happened.
May 12, 2022: MCR releases ‘The Foundations of Decay’
On May 12, 2022, My Chemical Romance released a new single titled “The Foundations of Decay.” The single is not part of The Paper Kingdom, but is important to mention because it signaled to fans that the band was indeed making new music and not just touring. The single was widely praised and described as “post-hardcore” and “gothic rock,” peaking at number 2 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
June 29, 2022: Doug McKean dies
Only a month after the release of “The Foundations of Decay,” which McKean helped produce, the Grammy-winning audio engineer died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 54. My Chemical Romance made a post calling McKean “an integral part of our music” and “someone who made us laugh, made us better, understood, and always came to the rescue.” McKean’s tragic death is important to note, as according to the noise11 article back in 2012, the band was hoping to work with McKean to make their next record. McKean is widely praised and acknowledged among MCR fans for his importance in constructing the band’s sound.
November 5, 2022: A user on an online forum claims to have The Paper Kingdom, tries to sell it
On November 5, 2022, nine years after MCR’s breakup, a user under the alias “Excalibur” posted on an online forum focused on leaked music, claiming to possess the scrapped album. The user said the album consisted of 14-17 songs, and posted snippets and titles of some of the songs as proof. The user was reportedly seeking $15,000 for the album.
Two years later, a Reddit user claiming to be familiar with the situation shared an update, “They were sold off by a user known as ‘Excalibur’ (hence the robotic voice over the tracks saying it, like an audio watermark) – fans attempted to arrange a group buy, but before that could happen, the tracks were sold to an individual buyer who has since gone silent about them – likely for a private collection. Unless My Chem decides to release The Paper Kingdom, or the buyer has a complete change of heart, we’ll likely never hear more than these clips.”
It’s unclear how exactly “Excalibur” obtained the songs. One of the snippets they published as proof was of “The Foundations of Decay” which was already released months earlier. The other snippet, however, was not of any known released My Chemical Romance song, which points towards the validity of the user’s claims. Did “Excalibur” have the leaked material before MCR released The Foundations of Decay, or did they obtain it afterwards? More importantly though, how did they obtain them? The November 2022 “Excalibur” leak marked the first time someone leaked material that they were not supposed to share, and reportedly succeeded in selling it.
June 28, 2024: User claims to have a large volume of files from a record label
On June 28, 2024, a user under the alias of Kimbo on the same online forum made a post titled “Warner Brothers [4.9TBs]” with a “LEAK” tag. The user appeared to be claiming to have 4.9 terabytes of Warner Brothers files. In the body of the post, the user included several links leading to external sites as well as a long list of file names. One of those file names was listed as a 42MB file named “My Chemical Romance.zip.” It’s unknown what exactly the zip file contained, and if any Paper Kingdom material was in the file. This was now second time that someone claimed to have to material by My Chemical Romance.
July 4, 2024: A full unreleased song is reportedly leaked
According to a fan project that tracks the leaks, a full version of one of the songs from The Paper Kingdom leaked on July 4, 2024. The leak comes only a week after the previous entry on the timeline, but it’s unclear if the two events are connected.
2025 – 2026: Major leaks and where we are now
After the first series of leaks in 2022-2024, things go quiet until the dam finally breaks in 2026. In 2025, MCR launched their Long Live The Black Parade tour with stops in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. But it’s what happened on July 26 in Los Angeles that excited many fans, and possibly spooked those who had access to unreleased materials.
July 26, 2025: MCR plays ‘The War Beneath the Rain’ live
In a surprise move, while talking to the crowd in Los Angeles, Gerard Way says that “before the band broke up, we had a studio in North Hollywood and we were making a record that never came out,” before going on to say that they are going to play one of the songs that they really liked from the record, which Doug McKean helped record. McKean’s family was there that night, and the band wanted this song to go out to them. To the cheers of the audience, Gerard said that the song is called “The War Beneath the Rain.” The decision by the band to play this song generated excitement in the community and gave fans a brand new song.
Gerard’s mention of the studio in North Hollywood and McKean’s help with the record both line up with previous entries on the timeline like the 2012 noise11 interview. The title of the song, “The War Beneath the Rain” also matched one of the titles that “Excalibur” named in their 2022 forum post, further supporting the legitimacy of the user’s claims.
This brings us to a possible motive that is worth considering. If claims that “Excalibur” successfully sold a copy of The Paper Kingdom in 2022 are true, then by playing the songs live, the band was essentially devaluing the product price of anyone intending to further leak or sell the album. To put it more simply, if you paid $15,000 to purchase an unreleased album, you probably do not want the band to start releasing it, as that would mean your purchase was a waste.
January 31, 2026: “The Paper Kingdom” leaks on an online forum
On January 31, 2026, a brand new user under the alias “Coming of Jesus” leaked 16 full songs reportedly from The Paper Kingdom, on an online forum. 15 of those songs were not released in any studio form before. The only song in the leak that was released in a studio form was “Fake Your Death” which was discussed in a previous entry on the timeline.
Coming of Jesus included the track list with the names of the songs, along with an external link where users could download them. Once fans on the forum realized what had happened, reactions started coming in: “holy crap wtfff never expected to see this” one user said, “no way this casually just leaked” said another. After Coming of Jesus leaked the album, the user was promptly banned from the site.
The first X post mentioning the phrase “The Paper Kingdom” after the leak was on January 31, 2026 at 9:55PM PT, just 22 minutes after the leak. An hour later, a user replied to them asking to take down their post as they’re “trying to delay it spreading.” Those efforts were not successful, as within hours, other users were asking where they could access the leaked material. At 1:25PM on February 1, a user in the “Has it Leaked Forever” Discord server announced to its thousands of members that “The Paper Kingdom has leaked!”
The reactions to the leak were split. Some fans saw it as a betrayal of the band, with some influencers within the community going as far as to threaten to block those sharing the leaks, and encouraging people not to discuss or listen to them. Many fans, however, could not resist the temptation. Some fans shared their positive reactions to the album, saying that certain songs were “easily in the top 10 best MCR songs.”
On February 2, 2026, fans created the r/ThePaperKingdomMCR community on Reddit to discuss the leaks. Some of the top posts in the community include fan-made cover arts and collages, speculation on where leakers obtained the songs, and memes about the leak. In the weeks following the leak, more unreleased songs were reportedly leaked in forums. We don’t know if the band was planning to, or is still planning to release the songs officially. Finding the leaks online remains a challenge as the content is copyrighted and gets taken down fast. As of the time of writing this article, the band itself has not acknowledged the leaks or made any statement about it.
