Songfacts®:

• When My Chemical Romance released "Fake Your Death" in 2014, they broke their fans' hearts by declaring it to be the final MCR song. The band reunited for a show in Los Angeles in December 2019, before announcing North American and European tours. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed their plans for a while, but on May 12, 2022, they released "The Foundations of Decay" ahead of their European tour starting a week later.
• Since "The Foundations of Decay" is My Chemical Romance's first new music in eight years, they have plenty to talk about. Vocalist Gerard Way uses turmoil and death as allegorical reflections on the band's calling to pursue music and their influential legacy.
  
  Let our bodies lay while our hearts will stay
  Let our blood invade if I die in pain
  Now, if your convictions were a passing phase
  May your ashes feed the river in the morning rays
  And as the vermin crawls
  We lay in the foundations of decay
  
  My Chemical Romance's previous album, Danger Days, used a post-apocalyptic, decaying California as an allegory for the state of rock music in 2010. A dozen years later, rock music is still less popular than in the band's early years. Though MCR's legacy and their passion to create music remains, Way isn't sure they can enjoy the same success.
• During the second verse, Way recalls forming My Chemical Romance as an artistic response to 9/11.
  
  He was there, the day the towers fell
  And so he wandered down the road
  And we would all build towers of our own
  Only to watch the roots corrode
  
  The band became Way's outlet and therapy as he sought a way to deal with the terrible incident. However, as MCR became more successful, Way felt increasingly under pressure to keep upping their standards, but it made him lose his original artistic vision.
• Sonically, the song starts as a mellow, simmering reflection before exploding into a head-banging chorus. Its heavy rock vibe reverts to the sound of MCR's 2002 debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, tying in with its returning-to-roots lyrical concept.
• The four MCR band members wrote "The Foundations of Decay." Way and guitarist Ray Toro co-produced the track with Doug McKean, who has been Way's producer since Hesitant Alien in 2014. McKean also served as the song's recording engineer.
• My Chemical Romance performed "The Foundations Of Decay" live for the first time on May 16, 2022 at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. The band kicked off its first UK show in over a decade with the song.