Black Light Burns
Cover Your Heart
I Am Wolfpack
5/10
I really do enjoy the majority of Wes Borland’s work, I think it’s interesting and well thought out. This is not the majority of his work. This…is fucking weird. I actually was able to say that to his face (well, over the phone, but I said it.) It’s layered with crazy synths and it sounds like it was recorded by typing each word into a speak and spell possessed by Beelzebub.
I also really, really enjoy cover songs, I find it greatly interesting to see what endless paths a cover can be taken (see Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” or Marilyn Manson’s “Sweet Dreams,”) but Borland’s near-raping of On the Bound by Fiona Apple should not have been allowed past the recording session. It’s as if that the entire record was Borland pounding a couple brewskies and a handful of Mescaline in the studio and playing some his favorite jams like a man who has lost everything, especially his mind. Attached to the end of the covers is a couple instrumental versions of his own jams, which are fucking good. I’m looking forward to his next album of original work, but I am putting this one away and not looking back.
-Jonathan “The Emperor” Yost