Nice Debut from a good band

For the past three years, My Chemical Romance has been experiencing massive success thanks to the hit albums Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and The Black Parade. However, before those two hit albums was I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, the band’s debut.

My Chemical Romance is usually just passed off as just another member of the ever-growing “emo” scene. Although, many of these misconceptions have been annihilated thanks to the new sound and look of their newest album, The Black Parade. However, even on their first two albums, MCR shows that they are above and beyond the bands in that category.

Listeners used to Three Cheers (and ESPECIALLY people who have only listened to The Black Parade) will be surprised. Sometimes those people are surprised in a good way, some are surprised in a bad way. There’s not usually an in-between. Although all of their albums have underlying themes of darkness and death, the dark tone of this album seems to turn a lot of people off.

Bullets begins with guitarist Ray Toro playing the classical Spanish Guitar piece “Romance.” After that short intro passes we are brought into “Honey, this Mirror isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us,” which begins with a simple yet effective staccato guitar riff. Lead singer Gerard Way spits out the lyrics, alternating between singing and screaming. Yes, his scream will take a while to get used to, as it is not as polished as on the more recent two albums. However, once you get into it, it’s pretty awesome.

After that track, we are brought into “Vampires Will Never Hurt You.” And now, I feel, is the right time to mention the underlying story behind this album. That’s right. I said that there’s a story. No, not the amazing theatrics found on The Black Parade, but there is indeed a slight story to go along with these songs. To make things simple, two lovers make a pact, that if the vampires get one of them, the other will kill him/her who has been bitten. However, as the band has stated before, a lot of the songs veer off from the story.

Anyways, back to the song (“Vampires Will Never Hurt You”). Things start out soft, with a simple bass drum and cymbal beat, and then a light guitar riff begins. Immediately the haunting tone of this song is apparent. And it is only made even clearer when Gerard’s vocals begin. His voice picks up intensity, and then, with an intense screaming of “Put this spike in my heart!!” we are brought into distorted guitars and everything cranked up. Then with everything turned back down, whispers lead us into the next verse. It’s a very intense song, culminating in haunting whispers.

While the previous track eased its way in, the funnily titled “Drowning Lessons” starts off loud, and stays that way for the entire track. You can really hear torture in Gerard’s voice, right up to the last line of “And I’ll wish you away.” The guitars quiet down for a clean version of the main riff, and then a distorted outro piece comes in and fades out.

Ah, then we come to “Our Lady of Sorrows,” a loud track packed with more screaming than any other song on the album. It never slows down, right through the last repeat of the intense chorus of “Stand! Up f***ing tall, don’t let them see your back!” The song concludes with an all-out intense screaming of words that I still cannot understand. It’s something about a hand around a throat, but I can never tell. Anyways, this is a very intense, awesome song.

Right after the last tortured scream from Gerard, the grand sound of the guitars on “Headfirst for Halos” has quite the potential to take the listener by surprise. Indeed, its intro would not have felt out of place on The Black Parade. It consists of lyrics about suicide put with cheerful guitars. Oh, and just for the record, the band has stated that this song is NOT meant to encourage suicide.

Next comes “Skylines and Turnstiles,” the first song the band ever wrote. And it is a very nice song, expressing feelings of hope and how to move on after a tragedy. Specifically, this song was written due to September 11th, which was also the event that inspired lead singer Gerard Way to start the band. He actually watched the towers fall from a nearby ferryboat.

The song utilizes interesting song structure, lacking a second verse, and going through many different moods. Gerard’s screaming backs his singing parts wonderfully in this song, and the guitar riff is, once again, simple yet extremely effective and well-written.

“Early Sunsets Over Monroeville” seems to continue the previously mentioned vampire storyline. The guitars in the beginning really make me think of a sunset, and the reverb on Gerard’s voice really adds to the feel of the song. Halfway through, the effects on his voice are dropped, and the entire mood of the song changes. Gerard’s vocals slowly become more and more intense, going from soft singing to screaming. Although there are no (that’s right- zero) distorted guitars in this song, it manages to be extremely intense.

In the next track, “This is the Best Day Ever,” the guitars work really well together, with one guitar playing octaves and the other playing palm-mutes for the intro. Then for the second section of the intro, the second guitar switches to a cool pull-off riff. Gerard actually wrote this song about this rotting tooth he had at the time, which was causing a lot of pain for him. The song changes moods halfway through, from a feeling of panic and claustrophobia to an almost cheerful mood at the end.

“Cubicles” is about an office relationship, and is the biggest breath of fresh air this album has to offer. Its mood never descends into darkness. Now that’s not to say that I don’t like the dark songs, because I actually like them the most, but I just felt it should be pointed out so you know what to expect. But anyways, yet another simple yet effective guitar riff runs throughout this one, along with fairly cool drumming in the chorus.

The next, and final track is very commonly a fan favorite. Its name: “Demolition Lovers.” The song starts out with a little guitar solo piece, and then Gerard’s vocals begin. They have a very mysterious, creepy sound to them on this track. Then the second guitar and bass comes in for what will eventually be recognizable as a sort of chorus to the song. After the second verse, Gerard’s voice picks up intensity and volume, and soon the distortion kicks in and everything comes in full volume. Complete with Gerard’s usual screaming, this continues until a sudden stop. And right when you think the song is over, another guitar piece kicks in, with all the distortion and other instruments wiped away.

This guitar piece is just as heartfelt as the last one was creepy. Gerard sings a little piece repeatedly (“All we are/All we are/ is bullets I mean this”) until everything crescendos into a guitar solo, composed mainly of octave chords. Eventually we are brought into a chorus very similar to the one in the first half of the song, yet with a chord progression that gives it less of a creepy feel. The song comes to a sudden stop with Gerard screaming “I mean this/ forever!!”

“Demolition Lovers” is an explosive and dynamic closer to an album describable by the same two words. It is also the closing to the story of the album, featuring vivid descriptions of heartache and the emotions going through the character’s mind as he is preparing to kill his girlfriend. Sure, it may lack the variety of Three Cheers or the theatrics of The Black Parade, but this album is certainly worth the listen. It’s certainly not as polished as their later two albums, but it’s also not as raw as a lot of people make it seem.