The name Trans-Am conjures up a lot of images -- muscle cars, hard rock, stadium tailgating, football. These are things fans might not normally associate with My Chemical Romance and frontman Gerard Way is the first one to admit that. "The fact there's a song now tentatively titled 'Trans-Am' is a bold thing for this band to do as opposed to our previous material," he tells Spinner of one of the tracks on the band's eagerly anticipated 2010 album. "There's something in that phrase that's obviously more than the car. But to bring something like old '70s muscle car culture into the music, that's kind of different move."

That difference can be heard in the opening of the rocking partier 'Death Before Disco,' which features a vibe similar to Judas Priest's 'Living After Midnight.' "That's my favorite Priest song," Way says, admitting there is some '80s flavor on the disc. He credits 'Trans-Am' for freeing those influences up.

"That song actually reminded me in an odd way of all the best stuff of '80s what is called cock rock, but not all of it was," Way says. "Judas Priest is considered metal, but it's great rock 'n' roll. It's having nothing to do with that era of metal, the hair rock, but then having everything to do with like the birth of power-anthem metal. After 'Trans Am,' that started to really bleed into the record."

Judas Priest wasn't the only '80s influence on the new music. The band also turned to one of the decade's cinema classics as well. "I watched a lot of 'Blade Runner' and I watched a lot of the 'Making of Blake Runner.' Ridley Scott was really inspiring too, just kind of his unwillingness to put the camera down and really capture something special. He wasn't trying to make 'Star Wars,'" Way says. "People were upset by that, but he was very strong in his vision and I think the band was very strong in its vision this time. That's why the record took -- instead of a month and a half to do -- four months to track because our barometer for great was very high."