Bullets

The era known in the fandom as "Bullets" referres to the period of time during the year of the release of their debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, and the following years (up until the release of their second album).

Aesthetic

This era of the band has, like the rest of their eras, a very notable and recognisable look in terms of style. This era's style, just like the album itself, is seen as rough. Gerard's main look for this era consisted of a leather jacket, black jeans... just a lot of black really, although that's a reoccuring theme across majority of the main eras. This era looks more messy than the others, and I think that's why the fandom loves it so much. Its real, its raw, and people can relate to it even through the band members clothing.

Click images to see them larger

Gerard Way

Mikey Way

Frank Iero

Ray Toro

Matt Pelissier

Album

I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love_cover

The album this era is based around, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, was released in 2002, and is their debut album. The album consists of 11 songs, which in order are:

  1. Romance
  2. Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us
  3. Vampires Will Never Hurt You
  4. Drowning Lessons
  5. Our Lady Of Sorrows
  6. Headfirst For Halos
  7. Skyline And Turnstiles
  8. Early Sunsets Over Monroeville
  9. This Is The Best Day Ever
  10. Cubicles
  11. Demolition Lovers

In terms of concept albums, this particular album has no real answer to whether or not it is one. Many fans believe it is, while others don't. The best answer I've found to this question is that Bullets is a precursor to their next album, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, in terms of storyline. Bullets doesn't have as clear a storyline as Revenge or The Black Parade, but each song has its own storyline that is its own thing.

I think that the main reason people feel this album is the beginnings of the Revenge storyline is because of the song Demolition Lovers. This is the last song on the album, and it feels like it could be a sort of transition into the Revenge storyline, as Revenge is about a pair of "Demolition Lovers" (more on the Revenge storyline on the upcoming Revenge page). According to Kerrang!, the names for the songs on the album, and their individual storylines, were taken from Gerard's comic ideas that he had thought up during his early 20's, inluding the name of the album itself.

Two of the songs on this album, Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us, and Vampires Will Never Hurt You, both have music videos featured on the rereleases of the cd that were released in 2005-2007 (These are the cds that have 720 on the case, spine and disc).

People

During this album, the members of the band consisted of Gerard Way (lead and backing vocals, as well as the cover art design), Mikey Way (bass guitar), Ray Toro (lead guitar), and Matt Pelissier (drums). Frank Iero also joined the band a couple days before recording the album, and played additional drums and backing vocals on the tracks Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for fhe Two of Us, and Early Sunsets Over Monroeville. Geoff Rickly, the producer for this album, also recorded backing vocals on track 9, This Is the Best Day Ever.

People involved with the technical production of this album consisted of Geoff Rickly (producer), Alex Saavedra (assistant producer and additional photography), John Nacliero (recording, mixing), Ryan Ball (mastering), and Mark Debiak and Gerard Way (cover art design).

Outside Influences

While this era of the band is known for its more noticable hardcore punk influnces compared to their other albums, it is most well known for the fact that the whole reason the album, and the band itself, was created, was a result of Gerard Way witnessessing 9/11, while he was working as an intern at Cartoon Network. “From then on, I was in my parent’s basement with a very small practice amp and a very old Fender guitar. That’s when I wrote ‘Skylines and Turnstiles’ [as a reaction to what he saw on 9/11] and some of the earlier material. I wrote those songs sitting in my pyjamas with notebooks all around me. It was me going, ‘All this stuff has been inside me for years and I want to get it out’. I wasn’t depressed at that time exactly but I was certainly a hermit.” Gerard Way said in a My Chemical Romance Pull-Out Special for Kerrang on Janurary 17, 2007.This experience not only influenced the whole idea of the band, but the first song that was ever written by Gerard Way for the band; Skylines and Turnstiles. This song has been stated as being Gerard Way's way of coping with and working through the experience.

This can be seen through the lyrics in the song; “We walk in single file/We light our rails and punch our time/Ride escalators colder than a cell/This broken city sky/Like butane on my skin/And stolen from my eyes We can’t close the lids/On burning eyes Steel corpses stretch out towards an ending sun.”

According to Alternative Press, "Way sings these lyrics, capturing both the futility of nine-to-five life and the devastation caused when it all comes crashing down. “Can we still reclaim our innocence?” he ponders at the song’s climax, before espousing a line that sums up the hope MCR brought to so many: “If the world needs something better/Let’s give them one more reason now.”"

Bands and music artists that influenced Mcr's sound, not just during Bullets era, include Ink & Dagger, The Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Smiths, Morrissey, The Misfits, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Pulp, Blur, Iron Maiden, David Bowie, and many, many more that would take way too long to list.

References

1. Shepherd T, Borucki J. “You can hear the nervousness and excitement”: The story of My Chem’s debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love [Internet]. Kerrang! 2024 [cited 2025 May 18]. Available from: Kerrang!

2. Wikipedia Contributors. I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love [Internet]. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation; 2019. Available from: Wikipedia

3.AltPress. 11 things you might not know about MCR’s “I Brought You My Bullets…” [Internet]. Alternative Press Magazine. 2017. Available from: Alt Press

4. Bryant T. My Chemical Romance: from the beginning to The Black Parade | Tom Bryant, Kerrang! [Internet]. tom-bryant.com. 2025. Available from: Tom Bryant

5. Hannen L. May Death Never Stop You: The Eras of My Chemical Romance As Told By Gerard Way’s Style Evolution | The Sound of Style [Internet]. The Kavalier. 2019. Available from: The Kavalier

6.AltPress. This is the rarest My Chemical Romance release, according to Frank Iero [Internet]. Alternative Press Magazine. 2016 [cited 2025 May 25]. Available from: Alt Press

7.Reddit - The heart of the internet [Internet]. Reddit.com. 2020 [cited 2025 May 25]. Available from: Reddit

Matt Pelissier Image