10 Best Hard Rock Albums Of The 2000s

For those less informed, the first mention of My Chemical Romance will evoke multiple screams of "EMO" throughout the land. While it is certainly justified given the band's theatrical odes to more depressive subject matter, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge is one of the most straight-ahead hard rock ragers to come out of the pop punk genre.

Across its lean 40 minutes, the band never lets their foot off the gas as they make fantastic use of their instrumentation from the opening eruption of "Helena" to the more punk leaning sides like on "Thanks for the Venom" and "Give Em Hell Kid." Even the more subtle moments like "The Ghost of You" have just the right amount of understated beauty to work their way past your eardrums and into your hard rock heart. The album also has the distinction of having "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)," whose endlessly quotable lines have been chanted by alt-rock kids for over a decade now.

In an effortless balancing act, MCR released an album absolutely dripping with teen angst but which could also stand on its own as kickass music regardless of your generational status. It may be seen as "just a phase" at first glance, but you don't need rose-colored glasses to see the quality on display here.