It’s been more than twenty years since the explosion of post-hardcore and emo in New Jersey, a scene that rose from the gritty, sticky floors of basements and music venues. These were the days when Bomb Shelter flyers directed you to shows (never concerts), getting a tour bus made you a sell-out, and kids crowded into the Manville Elks Lodge to scream along to At the Drive In. The music was raw, real, and far from glamorous. But it was this scene that would give birth to one of the biggest bands of 2000s alt rock. 

Before the commercial success of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge made them a spearhead of 3^rd wave emo—the mainstream take also referred to as “MTV-mo”—My Chemical Romance was just another band rising from the New Jersey hardcore scene. Following in the footsteps of contemporaries like Thursday, Midtown, and Saves the Day, their music would combine the punchy punk sound of the local scene with more sensitive lyrics. Although none of these artists identified with the label “emo” at the time, their music was undeniably emotional. And My Chemical Romance was about to be at the forefront of the movement. 

Released in 2002, the band’s debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love—often shortened to Bullets—tore onto the scene with all the elegance of a car crash. But despite its imperfections, it was clear that Bullets was the start of something big. 

The record opens with an acoustic instrumental, “Romance,” which is a cover of the classical Spanish song “Romance d’Amour.” The song, which also appeared in the film Dawn of the Dead, sets the eerie, hauntingly beautiful tone of the album. The next 40 minutes will treat listeners to horror-inspired tales of vampires and zombies, brilliant guitar work, and vocals that walk the line between unpolished and cathartic. 

Speaking of zombies, Bullets does have its own Dawn of the Dead-inspired song. In “Early Sunsets Over Monroeville,” a melancholy ballad set in the apocalypse, the narrator laments having to kill his lover after she is turned into a zombie. The instrumental is much more subdued than the rest of the album, but the same cannot be said of the vocals. It’s clear to see why singer Gerard Way’s performance on this track left the rest of his band jarred during the recording session, as the story goes. “And there’s no room in this hell / There’s no room in the next,” he screams just before the music fades out. Stepping back from the mic, he utters the final refrain in painful silence: “But does anyone notice / There’s a corpse in this bed?” Save this track for a day when your heart can handle it. 

The central theme of the album, the fear of losing or hurting someone you love, is exemplified in tracks like “Early Sunsets” and “Drowning Lessons.” The latter is a driving pop-punk song in which, again, Way bemoans killing his lover—the setting this time is a wedding, in a perfect blend of romance and tragedy. Self-destruction and doomed love collide head-on throughout the record. 

That being said, Bullets doesn’t escape the “dead girlfriend” trope that, in part, caused emo to be characterized as largely misogynistic. Looking back, the genre has been criticized for its violent lyrics and “nice guys finish last” attitude—women’s suffering was consistently romanticized, and countless frontmen pondered why the girl just wouldn’t go for them. Songs like “Buried a Lie” by Senses Fail and “Pretty Lush” by Glassjaw come to mind. While some may argue that the tracks on My Chem’s debut should be excused due to the narrative quality of the songwriting, there remains an air of authenticity about them that makes the songs all the more relatable, yet simultaneously agonized. In the album’s acknowledgements, Way writes to his then girlfriend: “I’m sorry I wrote all these songs about killing you, I hope the last song makes up for it.” The final track on the record, “Demolition Lovers,” is a stirring, tortured story of Bonnie and Clyde-style lovers. The singer professes his devotion, the lyrics a promise to go to the ends of the earth, even “As snow falls on desert sky / Until the end of everything”. The song also sets up the band’s following concept album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, which continues the story of the Demolition Lovers. Arguably one of My Chem’s best songs, it is both a perfect end to Bullets as well as the start of their future in the alternative music scene.