Gerard Way isn’t the only former My Chemical Romance member who has decided to launch a new project in the music business. MCR guitarist Frank Iero (pronounced eye-ee-ro for those of you didn’t know) has now released an album with his new band, Frnkiero and the Cellabration, titled Stomachaches.

Although they’re known as frnkiero andthe cellabration, the whole project is mainly the brainchild of lead singer Frank Iero.

“These songs came from deep inside me and became my salvation at a certain point, and up until this August I will have kept the majority of them a secret from everyone,” Iero said. “They were just mine, and now I am ready to give them up to all of you.  I hope that you may enjoy them.”

There has been speculation as to what the thought process behind the title was, but there’s a reasonable explanation for it.

“In late 2012, I started to experience an increase in my already-painful digestive issues and my creative side started to wither under the weight of not ever feeling well. Every time I felt the pain coming on I’d go downstairs and hammer out an idea. After a few months I started to take a look at what I was making. I had, for the first time in my life, written a large grip of songs completely alone and without any expectations or plans of what they would be for,” Frank said. “These songs, they were all mine. They started inside me as these wretched stomachaches and I had to dig them out of me in order to survive. They were my disease and ultimately became my cure.”

The basic thematic elements of this record are pain and love, which show quite obviously in many of the tracks.

“When I finally took a step back and looked at the body of work I had created, I began to notice some common threads. The stories told on this record all seem to touch upon a yearning for love and acceptance, and a longing for a place in which you feel you may finally belong. Sometimes finding solace in the realization that you might not in fact belong anywhere, and drawing a certain power from that.”

Lyrically, this album is fantastic, and I can’t even dream of there being better lyrics for this music. The lyrical content is emotional and deep, which was one of my favorite things about My Chemical Romance. I’m glad that carried over to Iero’s new band. Listen closely to the lyrics and the high energy. Some of them do tend to get lost in the massive sounds of the guitars and drums. There is some serious emotion packed into these lyrics, and a quick listen is not going to cut it. Take your time and listen more than once to really appreciate the lyrics.