Doom Abuse

Doom Abuse, the seventh album for the indie rock/dance/punk band The Faint was released on April 8, 2014. While listening to this album I realized that the Faint is a band that likes to have a lot of nihilistic meaning to their songs. Why this is I don't know, is the lyrics something they feel to be true or are they singing them because they think it sounds good? For whatever reason they have for their lyrics and the meanings of them, the lyrics do take on a somewhat bleak tone but are also being sung in a upbeat fun manner. Which the whole album is one that has a lot of fun, quick, quirky beats being played while mixing together some catchy instruments and other unique sounds.

This was one album that when I first listened to I was just hearing it for the instruments and not really hearing the vocals that much. One reason for that is that is the instruments drive the songs and are the center focus point when listening. It's a good thing that the instruments are being played well with a lot of different sounds being used. Opening song, “Help in the Head” starts off with some loud feedback that really didn't sound good at all, I mean come on, I like having a new sound being put in a song, I like having some chaos, but feedback is not a good sound to hear. What it causes is people to cringe and not want to hear, but when the heavy bass, hard hitting drums, and the metal guitar gets played the song starts to come together.

When I did listen to the lyrics that when I noticed the darker side to the songs. With having the instruments being played in such a upbeat and quick tempo and the vocals being sung in a cheerful rhythm, I was thinking the songs would be a more upbeat meaning. What I didn't like was how the vocals got muffled a lot where they are being played over by the instruments. It took me having to have complete silence to try to even make out what was being said and even then it was a more difficult than it should have been. Regardless of the meanings, the muffled vocals, the songs have a catchy beat to them and when I did hear the vocals they where a good match for the instruments.