10 Definitive Rock Albums Of The 2000s

You can't get around the '00s era of rock and roll and not bring up emo music in some capacity. Even though the fringe haircuts may have seemed a little bit cringy at the time, there was a certain power behind this music that spoke to the tortured soul in all of us, tapping into our adolescent angst that we would hold onto for the rest of our days. This was more than just rock stars whining and complaining though, and The Black Parade is as good a record as ever to tell your mom that it wasn't just a phase.

While My Chemical Romance had been torn a new one for being one of the more over the top bands of the emo rock movement, their taste for theatrics worked wonders on this record, adopting the same bombastic sounds that Queen had left behind. Framed as a concept album around a dying cancer patient, every single one of these songs has a lot more to say than just adolescent complaining from Welcome to the Black Parade's message of carrying on in the face of death to Mama, where the character begins to question where he's going to land once he finally succumbs to his illness.

Although there are a few songs that might go a little too over the top for some, you can't deny the heart behind this record, willing to go above and beyond to create the greatest rock album that the genre had ever produced. For an album that centers around death for most of its runtime, the songs here make you feel that much more alive whenever you listen to them.