Customer Reviews

Doom Abuse

After 6 years of silence and the departure of original member, bass player Joel Peterson, The Faint return with a new record - the pounding and abrasive, yet catchy goth rock/dance punk groove fest of Doom Abuse. Going for a more intuitive "live performance" feel over the impressive glitchy sound design of Fasciinatiion, The Faint have crafted what might be their best album since Danse Macabre.

I love the gritty sound to Doom Abuse and this record comes closest to their live sound more than any of their other albums (if you have seen them live I'm sure you can attest to this!) The format here really follows the classic bass/guitar/drum/vocal "band" dynamic, with the synths then adding their touch on top, whereas Fasciinatiion was an endless wall of ever-changing synth flourishes. Its nice to see one of my favorite bands return after such a long hiatus and change it up a bit. I really love the aggression to Todd Fink's vocals - to which he adds lots of impressive howls and screams to his usual melodic gothy delivery. The guitars and drums get a lot more love this time around as well.

Fans who love the band mostly for their synth sounds will be just as happy because despite being a much more organically-driven album, the synths are still sprinkled ALL OVER the tracks in that wonderful new wave/glitchy/buzzy way that we all know and love. They are just mixed more evenly with the rest of the instruments this time around. Favorite tracks are the Devo-esque Dress Code, Scapegoat (reminds me of a more evil Ramones), the darkwave Lessons From The Darkness, and Damage Control, which may be their best album closer yet.

Hope to see more from the guys, sooner next time. Although if this were to be the last Faint album, they have gone out on a huge high note. Cheers!

It's hard to believe that it's been 6 years since we last heard from the Faint, with their 2008 "Fasciination" album, and that it's been 10 years going back to the next album, 2004's "Wet From Birth'. Where has the time gone? I figured that maybe Todd Fink & Co. had called it a day, but apparently not: here comes the band's 6th album of original material.

"Doom Abuse" (12 tracks; 39 min.) crashes in with "Help In the Head", and what you notice immediately is the less prominent role of synthesizers as compared to earlier albums. Of course they haven't been abandoned altogether, but as the next track "Mental Radio" shows, the band is flat-out ROCKIN' HARD. Look no further than the very next tracks, "Evil Voices" and "Salt My Doom" for yet more evidence of that. The first half of the album closes with "Loss of Head". The second half kicks off with "Dress Code", one of those tracks that remind us of the Faint's fasciination (typo intended) with new wave. The band then blows through "Scapegoat" at breakneck speed. "Lesson From the Darkness" is another stomper. "Unseen Hand" and "Damage Control", the latter being the most synth-heavy song on the album, close things out. In all, what an album! It all blitzes by in no time and you'll find yourself playing this again and again.

"Doom Abuse" is an overlong due but very welcome return from the Omaha band. It could well be their best album since 2001's "Dance Macabre", for me still their best album to date. I've seen the Faint in concert multiple times over the years, and their live shows never fail to entertain you. I can only hope they will come to the Cincinnati area again in support of the new material. Meanwhile "Doom Abuse" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

i own the last four albums from this band. blank wave arcade didn't do it for me as much as the next three. dance macabre is golden. wet from birth is even better. and fasciination is as good as that. this one, doom abuse, yeah, it goes back to their older, blank wave sound. only just listened to it, so maybe it'll grow on me, but it is a radical departure from their last three, which are way more my style.

what i liked about those, that this one lacks, is something like real creativity in the rhythm section. also, it's much much darker, i feel like, ominous, troublesome. there weren't much in the way of real evocative feeling but angst, anger, defiance, and fear... or something. i don't know, i feel like they phoned this one in. i was very excited to go see them play next week. now i'm glad i hadn't already bought the tickets.

if tool releases another album, and it's as disappointing, maybe i'll start watching television again.

what this album does have is drawn out repetitive beats. it's like, for each song, they wrote five four-bar lines, programmed the sequencer and went to town. songs are simpler. it's more like super post punk electro pop core. or whatever.
here is a very well written review of the album itself. i agree with it completely.
[...]
i'm not on board.

edit: so i went back and listened to blank wave arcade again. it's a lot better than doom abuse.
also noticed the link i tried to post was edited out by amazon. so google 'doom abuse review' and find the popmatters link. that's the review i was referring to.

sorrowfully disappointed.

Great album, as are they all! Saw them in concert last night which was amazing! This band is great. So glad I got to see them!

I thought these guys were done so I was really excited this album came out. There are good "classic" Faint sounds in here as well as the more rough rock aesthetic which they were going for. I think most of it works pretty well.

My only gripe is the album has a rushed feel and the songs are fairly short. I could have used a few more tracks, but maybe I am greedy.

Favorite tracks: Help in the head, Evil voices, unseen hand, lesson from the darkness, Loss of head.
Least favorite tracks: salt my doom, Dress code

The Faint's 6th studio album is one of both intricacy and simplicity, and from the start I realized this was going to be one difficult piece of work to review. As a hardcore Faint fan since the early days, I've been attempting to listen to the album from both a fan's perspective and a new-comer's perspective, and I believe I have a good grasp on both viewpoints now due to the fact it's been six years since their 2008 release "Fascination" came out.

The first thing that needs to be made clear is that this is the most raw, non-synthy album the Faint has ever released. Even moreso than it's early albums such as Media and Blank Wav Arcade. Another reviewer (Herbert West) made a great point that this is the most live-show sounding of their albums, and many of the songs on this release should sound very good in a live setting, especially one that gives the freedom to move around, as most of the songs are quite active.

The opinion I feel I have most strongly about the album is this: If you've been a fan of the Faint for years, you will enjoy this album quite a bit. If you are a newcomer or started listening around the time of Fascination or Wet From Birth, it might take you quite some time to warm up to. I doubt The Faint will be gaining too many *new* fans from this release, but rather reaffirming their long-time/old fans that they can still rock the hard 80's/retro/electro sound to a very great degree.

The songs are much shorter than any previous release in general, opting for a 2-3 minute length rather than the 3-5 minute fully immersed songs of prior records. There are also definitely a few filler tracks here and there which I don't find too appealing to the ears. Here are some quick song-by-song ratings:

01 Help in the Head - 7/10. A decent single and start to the album. Lacks a bit of flow and chorus strength.

02 Mental Radio - 9/10. Definitely one of the best tracks on the album and could have easily been on Blank Wav Arcade.

03 Evil Voices - 7/10. Good song but again I feel the chorus lacks. This album is quite repetitive (in a good way) but sometimes it's a bit much.

04 Salt My Doom - 5/10. Seems very filler to me and I don't think they should have had it batting fourth on the album. I don't mind the punk rock style sound at all but it's overall aesthetically unpleasant imo.

05 Animal Needs - 7.5/10. Another song that feels like a throwback and I can really see this one rocking live. Great electronic production.

06 Loss of Head - 8.5/10. If you like the Faint and you don't like this song, you're lying about one of them. Classic Faint material here with all the synths to back it up.

07 Dress Code - 7/10. Wow this one is crazy weird. I don't know how I feel. I like the quirky attitude of it. The lyrics are near-meaningless, but it's not like every song needs a point. I think I like the chopped up vocals on the chorus. Really strange song, though.

08 Scapegoat - 9/10. That's what I'm talking about! This is new territory for the Faint in a way. It's so rambunctious and reminiscent of late 80's and early 90's punk. I even feel like I could refer to some of Rancid/Operation Ivy's music for this track. Love it!

09 Your Stranger - 10/10. Follows the tune of the previous song and sort of modifies & morphs itself as it goes on. I believe this is the best track on the album with the best lyrics and presentation. Their electronic production practice in the recent years is really showing here with the execution. Real, real Faint stuff here.

10 Lesson From the Darkness - 8/10. I have a history of rating slow (and/or ballad) Faint songs lower than the active, upbeat ones, despite knowing that it's where my bias shines more brightly than anywhere else. But this one is really great and deserving of a high mark. Sort of creepy and dark, backing up the title of the track very well.

11 Unseen Hand 6.5/10. This one doesn't capture me much. Both the lyrics and the production. It's just a bit strange and non-flowing to my ears. Not bad, but I wouldn't keep listening to it.

12 Damage Control 6/10. The kind of track I was talking about earlier that I usually rate down. I'm not saying it's bad music, I'm just saying I don't find a point to listen to their music when it gets this slow and passive. There is a really cool electronic sound going on throughout the song though and it's well-made technically.

Overall, here is my real rating:

3/5 Stars to non-Faint fans and in general. A solid album that most people should at least find something they like about it, but won't have them checking out the Faint's discography for prior releases, which is a bit of an issue in my opinion since they are an amazing band and have been since day one.

4/5 Stars to Faint fans. This release is a brilliant "thank you, here's more" to the fans of their classic sound. Any of these tracks could be on Blank Wav and you wouldn't flinch about them sounding out of place, except for maybe the last one. I really, really recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the Faint's early work more than they enjoyed the later two or three albums.

3.5 Stars Average!

Boosted up to 4 because I'm a fan who wants them to succeed.

Solid front to back. Great energy. Raw and loud. Better than Fasciinatiion. Missing Joel's dominant bass but the rest of the band aren't missing a beat.

A great return from a great band. It's a privilege hear a new Faint album after so many years. Not only did they jump back to where they left off, but the energy shows a band refreshed. They already have a great live show with the only disappointing thing being the songs they don't get around to playing. Well here's a fresh set of tracks that I can leave the show wishing they played.

If you liked their previous albums you won't be disappointed. Hope they don't wait as long for the next one.

SHIPPER WAS GREAT AND GOT CD FAST. IF YOU ARE A FAN ON THE FAINT I WAS A LITTLE DISAPPIONTED BY THIS ALBUM, WAS A LITTLE SLOWER AND NOT AS GOOD AS SAY DANCE MACABRE

This is exactly the album i wanted from The Faint.