I'm not super knowledgeable about the electric guitar and its role in rock, but I do know that as far as MCR goes, a) there are two guitars happening; and b) the rhythm guitar tends to follow the lyrical line. So maybe that is leading to the two guitars overlapping with each other as well as one overlapping with the vocals, leading to a large mess? (And yeah, you're right, there is a lot of *something* going on that's really staticky. Maybe punk-influenced stuff is just always deliberately trashy?)

It did take me a while to get used to the sound--there were a couple of songs I liked, and I listened to those a lot and I think it conditioned me to be able listen to some of the other songs and make sense of them. It wasn't at, like, Rite of Spring levels of crazy-making, but there were definitely MCR songs I hated until I'd gotten used to them. There are still some of their songs I don't like.

. . . you know, it's weird what you pick up from fandom. When I started in this fandom my thoughts about songs were more on the level of "Huh. Song," and now I'm all, "Well, let me tell you about the roles of the guitars in this particular band" and analyzing the use of the cymbals in the new song.