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Most people know Wes Borland, mainly from the days
when Limp Bizkit were at the top of the nu-metal
scene, a band which Wes Borland played lead guitar
in and was pretty damn good as well, Wes left Limp
Bizkit on a number of occasions after many fall
outs with front man Fred Durst, since Wes left Limp
Bizkit he has gone on to form a number of side projects
such as Big Dumb Face, From First To Last, Eat The
Day and more recently Black Light Burns.
Black Light Burns are an experimental industrial
rock band which features an all star line up of
Wes Borland on vocals and guitar, Josh Freese
on drums, Danny Lohner on guitar, bass and programming
and Josh Eustis on keyboards and synths. Wes Borland
has always been a talented guitarist and finally
he has been given the chance to be creative and
come up with his own kind of music instead of
that which Fred Durst and the major record labels
asked of him in the past.
The debut album from Black Light Burns is 'Cruel
Melody', it’s a full on experimental album
that has a sound of Nine Inch Nails crossed with
Rammstein with a bit of Tool mixed in for good
measures. The album has 13 tracks and runs for
just over an hour, the album is also full of atmosphere
and has quite a depressing feel, each song is
also so different from the last, which makes way
for such a listenable and enjoyable album.
'Mesopotamia' kicks off the album in such a strong
style, the song sounds like something you would
hear on an earlier Queens Of the Stone Age albums,
the song has such a dark depressing feel about
it, Borland’s lyrics are quire eerie sounding
as he sings “Mesopotamia, Mesopotamia, you
fuckin’ give me the creeps you fuckin’
give me the creeps”, the drumming throughout
the song is pretty hectic with Josh Freese bashing
the shit out of his drums.
Borland's vocal work on 'Animal' is pretty impressive
and the song is worth checking out just for that
reason, I have always wondered how Borland’s
vocals would pan out as a frontman, and to be
honest his vocals aren’t that strong but
they really do suit the style of music that Borland
has gone for with Black Light Burns, the dark
depressing vocal style works well.
The first single to be taken from the album is
'Lie' the song is a really impressive electronic
synthesized song, the song builds up really well
into such a repetitive yet catchy chorus, the
song features a lot of different soundscapes throughout
and is without a doubt the strongest track on
the album.
The title track 'Cruel Melody' features a soothing
sounding acoustic guitar running through with
the odd electronic synth popping up every now
and again, the vocals throughout the song start
off quite mellow but build up into such an upbeat
sing along solid chorus which you will find hard
to shake out of your head for time to come, towards
the end of the song Borland strums away at his
acoustic guitar fastly whilst shouting "Take
me away, take me away, take me away I might as
well be yours" over and over again before
bursting into some hyper screams, this is Borland
at his best without a doubt.
The last few tracks on the album are totally
worth waiting for as they are quite epic, ''One
Of Yours' is quite a rocking track and features
Borland at his best vocally. The album closes
with 'Iodine Sky', the song is a full on instrumental
and is so good, it runs for over 8 minutes and
features a variety of different soundscapes that
never get too loud but sound so good.
There is a lot to offer on 'Cruel Melody' it’s
an album that may take a couple of listens to
get into, but once you are into it that’s
where the fun begins, each and every listen the
songs appeal to you that little bit more than
they did the time before, I don’t think
there are enough experimental industrial bands
around at the moment and I think Black Light Burns
are a welcome addition to the music scene, the
album is certainly worth a listen and I personally
can’t wait to see how the band recreate
their sound on the live circuit.
4/5
Review by Trigger |
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| Band
Members |
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Wes Borland (Vocals, Guitar)
Marshall Kilpatric (Drums)
Nick Annis (Guitar)
Sean Fetterman (Bass) |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Mesopotamia
2. Animal
3. Lie
4. Coward
5. Cruel Melody
6. The Mark
7. I Have A Need
8. 4 Walls
9. Stop A Bullet
10. One Of Yours
11. New Hunger
12. I Am Where It Takes Me
13. Iodine Sky
14. Kill The Queen (Bonus Track)
15. Fall Below (Bonus Track)
16. Mesopotamia (Remix) (Bonus Track)
17. Lie (Remix) (Bonus Track) |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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