10 Rock Albums That You MUST Listen To In Full

It was pretty hard to take the emo genre all that seriously at the best of times. Even though there was some good music to be found around the turn of the '00s, the era of layers upon layers of makeup proved to be a real stumbling block for acts that were more concerned with eyeliner than the songs they were playing. Then again, the most straight ahead rock has the ability to see through any gimmick.

Blowing the doors off the hinges, My Chemical Romance turned in a musical rock opera for the ages with the Black Parade. While the rest of MCR's material up to this point had a conceptual edge to it, this story of a young Patient stricken with terminal cancer turned into one of the most awe-inspiring album experiences of the modern age. From the first track The End., this record takes everything from Green Day to Aerosmith to Queen and fashions it into their own unique brand of dark arena rock.

Even though the songs are pitch black if you look at them closely, the hooks are so infectious that they could be played in stadiums all around the world. While the story at the end is left somewhat ambiguous, the message of carrying on even in the face of death is far more optimistic than people would probably realize. Regardless of what hangups you might have with the setup, the Black Parade is a crowning achievement in '00s rock that deserves to be celebrated for generations to come.