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My Romance's 2002 debut, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love ( http://www..co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001XLXRU/${0} ), was a particularly strident entry in that shifty genre of bands tortuously slamming together elements of emo, hardcore, and even metal. Rightly signed to a larger label (in this case, Reprise Records), MCR have return in 2004 with Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. With the aid of production major-leaguer Howard Benson, they've edited the slight rookie excesses of I Brought You My Bullets You Brought Me Your Love, resulting in a rewarding, pretty damn relentless product. Ghosts wander through this Sweet Revenge, and the blood-stained lovers of its cover are no joke. "Would I die for you? Well here's your answer in spades...Got you in my s," Gerard Way wails in "Hang 'Em High." There's also cinematic concepting here--"The story of a man. A woman. And the corpses of a thousand evil men..." the sleeve notes intone. "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison" begins "In the middle of a fight/In the centre of a restaurant." Economic, treble-kicking production, consistently hyper, "Let's get to the next note NOW!" instrumentation, and great thematic songwriting--Three Cheers teems with the influences MCR share with their peers, but recent efforts from fellow travelers "Thursday" and "AFI" don't have this furious immediacy, this coarseness that's so appealing. Album highlights include the propulsive chain s "Give 'Em Hell Kid" and "To the End," where layers of vocals increase urgency over modernist post-punk, or the raucous "Thank You for the Venom." There's no question of Reprise's high hopes for My Romance and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. But its accessibility pays tribute to anger and bullet holes in black leather. --Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide