Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (often shortened to Three Cheers or Revenge) is the second studio album by the American rock band My Chemical Romance, released on June 8, 2004, by Reprise Records. The album was produced by Howard Benson, and was written and recorded from late 2003 to March 2004. Writing sessions were highly influenced by the mental health and personal lives of the band members, particularly the death of Gerard and Mikey Way's grandmother.
Revenge has been characterized as multiple genres: emo, alternative rock, pop punk, post-hardcore, punk rock, and pop rock. The album's more polished sound and extended production period marked a shift from the band's preceding release, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love (2002). The style of tracks range from those aligned with traditional punk rock to more pop-structured tracks. Central themes of the album include love, loss, and revenge, with some songs also covering exploring one's gender and sexuality. The album follows a loose narrative that serves as a continuation of "Demolition Lovers" from Bullets; following the titular characters deaths, they are separated between heaven and hell, only able to re-unite should the male lover harvest the souls of a thousand men.
The album received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success for both the band and the Reprise label. The record produced three singles—"I'm Not Okay (I Promise)", "Helena", and "The Ghost of You". It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) less than a year after its release, and has sold over three million copies in the United States. By the time that touring had concluded in November, they had already created a good amount of songs from the album.' One day after the band's touring concluded, the grandmother of lead singer Gerard Way and bassist Mikey Way, Elena, died. The two brothers were heavily impacted by her death, with Gerard Way being left frustrated with himself over not being able to see her one last time.' Determined to honor her, he began writing a song in her memory, "Helena", where he expressed great self-hatred in its lyrics. The tone and theming of "Helena" would go on to influence the tone of their album, with Gerard Way stating that "the emotions I went through [when she died] and over the next six days were what completely fueled" the album.'
Production, writing, and recording
Following another shorter tour throughout the United Kingdom in early 2004, the band traveled to Los Angeles to start work on their second studio album. The impact that the death of Elena left was still being felt by the brothers at this point, who believed that working on new material was one of the only places where they felt peace.' The band got into contact with Warner in search of a producer and ultimately chose Howard Benson; the band submitted a demo of songs from Revenge to him shortly afterwards. The sound of the demo was highly influenced by "Headfirst for Halos", a "flamboyant" song from Bullets. Though Benson initially expressed disapproval, he wished to work with the band further. He ultimately asked if the band was willing to "piss off [their] current fans" to create the best album that they could.'
Pre-production for Revenge took three weeks. This was longer than the full recording and production process of Bullets, which took only one week.' With assistance from Benson, the band began to rework the material that they had already written for the album, and writing several new songs.' The first song written for Revenge was "It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Fucking Deathwish", which was one of the first songs that the band wrote and was intended for Bullets, but went unused at the time.' Benson wanted the band to focus more on their songwriting and arrangement skills, as well as writing more elaborate choruses whenever possible; Benson's focus was on wanting the album to sound as elaborate as it could be, even if his ideas conflicted with that of the band members. Frank Iero stated that, while he sometimes disagreed with Benson's vision for the album, he often found it as working out in the end despite being unable to understand as to how it had worked.' A major focus for Benson was the album's singles, which he decided early on in its production. He was more strict about what the band could do with these songs, though allowed for more creative freedom on other tracks.'
Once songwriting and pre-production concluded, the band moved to the Bay 7 Studios to begin recording Revenge. Ray Toro took control over the composition of the album itself, effectively serving as a "musical director".' The band aimed for every song on the album to sound distinct from one another, with Gerard Way putting on a different "persona" for each song and going to extremes to properly fit into the role that a song required. These extremes including playing pornography in the background of a song, taking off clothes, or attempting to manipulate his emotions.' At one point, he attempted to perform while being completely drunk, resulting in what he described as the "worst take [he] ever did". The track, "Desert Song", ended up being cut from the final record.'
My Chemical Romance quit working on the album by March 2004, when they went on tour throughout the United States. Benson was left to work on the album, which at the time remained mostly unmixed. Uncertain on how to handle the album's production without the band's input, he received assistance from another music producer, Rich Costey, who worked on four songs from the album to give Benson an idea on where to start.'
Music
Composition
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge has been described as emo, alternative rock, post-hardcore, punk rock, and pop rock. The album's sound is more refined than its predecessor Bullets, which Ed Walton of Distorted Sound Magazine considered rough and unpolished. Aliya Chaudhry of Stereogum described Revenge<nowiki/>'s sound as a fusion of Toro's metal-influenced style and Iero's punk-influenced style. She also described the album's pacing as "controlled chaos", and that when it seemed like a song was about to go in a specific direction, it did the opposite. and the glam rock inspired guitar solos on "Thank You for the Venom". There are thirteen tracks in the album total, including a brief interlude midway through where Gerard Way recites a prayer.
Lyrics and themes
Revenge<nowiki/>'s central themes include love, loss, and revenge. Following the death of the song's titular characters, the duo would be separated, with one in heaven and the other in hell, only able to reunite should the male partner harvest one thousand souls. During his murder spree, he ends up in New Orleans ("Give 'Em Hell, Kid"), participates in a Western-styled shoot-out ("Hang 'Em High"), and ends up in jail ("You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison"). Due to the band's shift towards making a more personal record, the final album only loosely follows the "Demolition Lovers" narrative.
"Thank You for the Venom" was written in response to critics that berated the band's music, themes, and lifestyle, and encouraging their fans to defy outside pressure. The band held a launch party for the album on July 11 at the Starland Ballroom, where 2,500 people attended.' Two promotional flash games were made by the band to promote the album: "Revenge", where players would play as a saint traversing through a cathedral in order to save the Demolition Lovers, and "Helena", which put players in the role of a titular character at their funeral while they attempt to come back to life and escape their own grave.
Shortly after the release of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, My Chemical Romance kicked out their then-drummer Matt Pelissier,' believing that he was unreliable when it came to live performances.' He was replaced by Bob Bryar in less than a week. Bryar would go on to appear on most of the associated music videos for Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.
Singles and music videos
left|thumb|Marc Webb (pictured in 2013) directed all of Revenge<nowiki/>'s music videos.
Three singles were released from the album, starting with "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" as the lead single The song reached number 86 on the Billboard Hot 100, and has been certified 3x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It has been considered My Chemical Romance's breakout hit. The album's second single, "Helena", was released on March 8, 2005. It reached number 33 on the Hot 100, and significantly contributed to the album's success. It has been certified 4x Platinum by the RIAA. It reached 84 on the Hot 100,
All three of the singles were accompanied by music videos directed by Marc Webb. "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" received two music videos, with the first one being a collage of concert footage and pictures of the Way brothers as children. which takes place in a high school and cuts between footage of the band members being bullied by school jocks and them performing the song.' The music video for "Helena" takes place at the funeral for a young girl, going between shots of the band performing and the funeral attendees engaging in a dance number. It is one of the most-expensive music videos ever made. was designed by Way. It was inspired by René Magritte's painting The Lovers. Originally, the artwork was created as a reference sketch for a photographer, but it became the artwork for the record after the record label saw it and requested to use it for the cover. During the promotional phase of the album, My Chemical Romance adopted a black-and-red aesthetic. In photo shoots and live performances, they would typically appear in attire consisting of black suits, red ties, red or white button-downs, and bulletproof vests.