Black Light Burns - The Moment You Realize You're

Artist: Black Light Burns
Title: The Moment You Realize You’re Going to Fall
Genre: Rock/Industrial/Ambient
Label: Rocket Science
Release Date: 8-14-2012

Ok, when I first heard that Limp Bizkit guitar player, Wes Borland had a solo thing (or three) going I was less than excited about it. But hey, a guy can be wrong about things like these and Black Light Burns turned out to be a really good band. Keep in mind that Black Light Burns is a “band” in the same way that Puscifer or Nine Inch Nails is a “band”. BLB is Borland’s baby all the way and the baby was born back in 2007 with the release of Cruel Melody.

We continue to watch Wes Borland channel his inner Trent on The Moment You Realize You’re Going to Fall. It would be too easy, and off the mark, to pass off Black Light Burns as Wes Borland’s version of NIN. The music on The Moment You Realize You’re Going to Fall is dark sounding for sure but doesn’t incorporate the sterility and disaffection that is one of the essential elements of Reznor’s Periodic Table.

Borland is a guitar player in the best nontraditional sense and a master of texture like Andy Summers or David Gilmour. ‘Torch From the Sky’ is a great example of Black Light Burns working from a complex sonic palette. Borland steers things from Bowie to Pink Floyd with just a bit of Beck in the course of that single song without treading into schizophrenia or nostalgia. Wes Borland creates his music with very few collaborators but never seems to fall prey to self indulgence. Maybe that’s because he is such an accomplished filter of his own influences and talents. And the influences are all right there for you. You can hear Iggy, Massive Attack, Robert Smith, Bowie, and NIN, in equal measure with Borland’s own considerable voice.

The Moment You Realize You’re Going to Fall’ is decidedly more low-fi than Cruel Melody, but it’s not a muddy sounding recording. It sounds warm and punchy without the over compression that has infected modern recordings (repeat after me: dynamics are a good thing). Black Light Burns can really rip things up when they want to ‘We Light Up’, ‘Scream Hallelujah’ and ‘Tiger By the Tail’ pound along fiercely. Look to ‘The Colour Escapes’ or the title track to take you to your spacey place. Hopefully Black Light Burns will be Borland’s greater legacy and his association with Fred Durst will be nothing more than a footnote.

dave buzard