Well before they enjoyed meteoric success with The Black Parade, My Chemical Romance started their musical journey with another concept album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. Back in 2002 MCR recorded their breakthrough debut album in just 12 days at the Nada Studios in New York. From the formation of the band in late 2001, through writing and rehearsing the songs, signing a record deal and recording an album the band had produced I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love in double quick time. 

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MCR's eleven track album may not be as polished or well produced as some of their later albums but it was still an album that was good enough to get them recognised, put them on the map and see them realise Gold sales status in both the US and the UK. I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love is full of raw power, pent-up aggression and barely controlled energy. There are occasional moments of calm where the intensity is turned down but these are not the defining tracks of the album. 

The introductory instrumental restraint of the flamenco like guitar on MCR's version of Romance quickly gives way to a full throttle aural onslaught as Gerard Way screams, "The amount of pills I'm taking, Counteracts the booze I'm drinking, And this vanity I'm breaking, Lets me live my life like this" on Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us. The autobiographical song spells out Gerard Way's problems with alcohol abuse in no uncertain terms on what was the second track on the original album and the second single release for MCR.

The third track on I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love was MCR's debut single release and the album's lead single coming two months ahead of the album. Released to coincide with the conclusion of the album's recording, Vampires Will Never Hurt You is a frantic burst of manic energy with little respite. The percussive drive, power chords and shredded guitars all combine in spectacular fashion to deliver up one of the album's highlights. The frenzied nature of this track is brilliantly captured in the recording as it manages to harness the very essence of the band in an almost live performance. 

Throughout I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love the impassioned delivery rarely dips. The album's inspirational track, and the first song to be written by My Chemical Romance - Skylines And Turnstiles, is a restless outpouring of explosive emotion that serves as a poignant introduction to the band. Our Lady Of Sorrows is as full on and frantic as MCR get with Gerard Way delivering the song like his life depended on it and This Is The Best Day Ever is similarly set but with a few brief nods to a more harmonic sound. The band's third single, Headfirst For Halos, explores this more melodic sound further as MCR show a slightly more reserved side, albeit with some super-charged machine gun drumming and unforgiving guitar riffs.   

Where My Chemical Romance take it down a notch they show signs of their future sound. On the introduction to the epic close out track Demolition Lovers and the entirety of Early Sunsets Over Monroeville MCR show a matured reservation and qualified restraint that lets them showcase their musicianship and broadening creativity. They didn't know it then, but this was the record that would set My Chemical Romance on a path to becoming worshipped Gods of EMO.   

I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love was released on July 23rd 2002 via Eyeball Records.