Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge
8th June 2004 | Album 2
My Chemical Romance started writing and recording their second album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge [also refered to as "Three Cheers" or "Revenge"] in late 2003 - March 2004. This album was signed with their first proper label, Reprise Records [announced on their website on August 31st 2003] After getting in contact with Warner Music to find a producer, Howard Benson was chosen.
The pre-production took 3 weeks. Longer than the full recording and production process of Bullets, which took only one week.
A month after the albums release, Bob Bryar took Matt Pelissiers place as drummer.
The first song written for the album, "Its Not A Fashion Statement, It's a Fucking Deathwish" was written a week after the release of Bullets. Once the album was ready to record, the band moved to Bay 7 Studios [this was their first time being in an actual studio] Ray Toro was the 'musical director' [taking over composition] And Gerard wanted every song to feel different, putting on a different 'persona' for each song.
"Each song had to have a completely different approach and alot of times that included method acting. When i sang 'You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison' i was running porn in the room and i wasnt wearing very many clothes.. i was in an attic that no one was allowed into." - Gerard Way
The album was certified platinum by the RIAA [Recording Industry Association Of America] less than a year after release!
Beginning of 2005, the band was featured on the first Taste Of Chaos tour with another band, The Used. The band also opened for Green Day, then co-headlined Warped Tour 2005 with Fall Out Boy and alot more. In the same year MCR collaborated with The Used, playing a cover of Queen and David Bowies "Under Pressure"
In late 2003, Gerard and Mikeys grandma, Elena passed.
"It was the hardest thing in the world for us because we were very close. Thats where i got my ability to sing and draw." - Gerard Way
The passing of the brothers grandma affected them deeply. Determined to honer her, they wrote the song "Helena" [a nickname friends of Elena had used for her] Gerard has described the song as not only a tribute, but a 'really angry open letter' to himself. Mikey and Gerard also said that working on new material was one of the only places where they felt peace
“It’s about why I wasn’t around for this woman who was so special to me, why I wasn’t there for the last year of her life, self-hate is always a big part of the lyrics. I’ve felt like that all my life. I don’t know why but I’ve always hated myself. Hopefully that self hate is growing into something else now, hopefully it’s grown into caring about myself and wanting to stay alive.” - Gerard Way
"Every single emotion you go through when you're grieving is on Revenge. When you really break down the record, it's about two little boys losing their grandmother" - Gerard Way
"Death is something that we’ll always write about because it’s tragic, negative and beautiful at the same time. It’s very beautiful and it can be a very positive thing" - Gerard Way
Original Concept
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge was going to be a concept album, following 2 characters the Demolition Lovers [from the song on bullets] following the death of both of them, one being sent to heaven [woman] and the other to hell [male], only able to reunite after the male harvested 1000 souls.
"The story of a man. A woman. And the corpses of a thousand evil men"
"Revenge is the story of a man and a woman who are separated by death in a gunfight. And he goes to hell, only to realize by the devil telling him that she’s still alive. The devil says he can be with her again if he brings the devil the souls of a thousand evil men, and the man agrees to do it, and so the devil hands him a gun and says ‘go do it.’ So obviously he kills 999 evil men, and then he realizes that the last evil man he has to kill is himself.” - Gerard Way
In Demolition Lovers [the song from bullets] we know that they were both shot to death on a highway.
On the Revenge album, Give 'Em Hell Kid is where the story after death starts, the man wakes up in Purgatory or Hell, separated from his lover and the devil offers him a deal, 'return to Earth and bring back the souls of one thousand evil men.' So he tries to push away any remorse and gets ready to do what must be done.
To The End, the man crashes a wedding, killing everyone there. The woman feels abandoned as she isnt aware of what hes doing.
You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison, He is sent to prison, plays around with sexuality and starts losing his sanity.
Im Not Okay (I Promise), This was meant to be the closing song of the album, reflecting on the toxicity of their relationship [ending in the mans suicide, but that was changed.]
Ghost Of You, COULD be part of this lore but isnt 100%,
The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You, could be about the mans addiction to drugs during this time,
Thank You For The Venom could be more loss of sanity,
It’s Not A Fashion Statement, It’s A Deathwish could be a note to himself, trying to believe this is the right thing to do,
Cemetery Drive could be about how much he misses his partner and losing hope, starting to hate the devil,
I Never Told You What I Do For A Living, the man kills 999 evil men, preparing himself to meet his partner once more but then being told by the devil that the last evil man is himself, resulting in his suicide and no reunion with his lover.
Gerard and Mikeys grandma passed around the time these songs were being written so the story of the Demolition Lovers was pretty much scrapped, though still used as the album cover. Gerard said the story was upto interpretation, later saying they barely remember the story.
Life On The Murder Scene was a 3 disc set including 2 DVDs, one with some live show footage of the band and the music videos from the singles I'm Not Okay (I Promise), Helena, and The Ghost of You. The other DVD being a documentary of the band, presented as a video diary kind of thing. Watch it here!
The CD had some live shows from the band and also included some demos, Bury Me In Black, a demo for I Never Told You What I Do For A Living and Desert Song. Desert Song was recorded when Gerard was completely drunk and according to Gerard it was 'the worst take i ever did' [i and alot of other fans disagree]
In the documentary there are alot of referances to substance abuse and how this affected the band [mainly focusing on Gerard], it can be hard to watch and some parts are very heavy, but it made me feel things alot deeper towards the band.
