Wes Borland: 10 albums that changed my life

“I think I was in third grade. When the pilot of Miami Vice came out, there’s a moment in the first episode ever when In The Air Tonight comes on when he’s driving his Ferrari and there are all the shots of the wheels and it’s going by… as a kid it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.”

“Well the oldest album that I listen to the most, that is something that I constantly reference, especially for studio work, is Dark Side Of The Moon, just because of the influence that had on albums like NIN’s The Downward Spiral and the whole idea of making a record that connects and flows instead of just being a sequence of songs.”

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“Kill ’Em All was the album that got me into metal and bumped me out of hardcore and punk rock because it changed from fast, aggressive music to fast, riff-based music.”

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“Disintegration by The Cure is the sex album in my life. When I hear that album, I’m like, ‘I really wanna have sex to that.’ And I have.”

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“They’re one of the bands that I’ve held on to. I don’t listen to much metal any more but Carcass and Death have stuck with me through the years. I saw them in the House Of Blues and people don’t usually move for LA shows but that place was insane.”

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“It can’t be anything with vocals or it has to be in a language that I don’t understand. As soon as vocals come in, it can be intrusive because a logical part of my brain will start lighting up and I’ll feel like I’m being pulled away from the painting. The only band that does have vocals that I can paint to is Fever Ray – Karen Anderson from The Knife’s other band.”

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“I was heartbroken over the Load album. I think it’s a big disappointment for most people. It just was not Metallica any more. The Black Album was commercialised Metallica but it still felt like Metallica. The riffs were still there and they still looked like Metallica and then all of a sudden…”

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“I really like some of the Godspeed You! Black Emperor covers because they’re so dark but the best album artwork is Roxy Music – Country Life. There are timeless hot chicks on the cover that’s been done so many times. That’s me thinking with my dick.”

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“Portishead would be my heartbreak album. That feeling of melancholy at its best, to the point where you almost love being depressed. Self-indulgent in your melancholy.”

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“I really like The Moment You Realise You’re Going To Fall. I feel like I really worked hard on that album for a long period of time and I really feel like that’s the Black Light sound and I feel like it separated people who are fans of the band from people who really get it and, as of right now, that’s the album I want to be remembered for. But I don’t think we’ve made the record yet that will be our OK Computer!”

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Published in Metal Hammer #243