Wes Borland

Wes Borland (born Wesley Louden Borland February 7, 1975 in Richmond, Virginia) is the guitarist in the nu metal Limp Bizkit as well as The Damning Well, Goatslayer, Big Dumb Face and Black Light Burns.

Borland's family moved to Florida where his father took a pastoral job at a Presbyterian Church. In Florida, Borland met bassist Sam Rivers at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts high school in Jacksonville and when Limp Bizkit was forming Sam threw out his name, stating he was more of an artist than a guitarist, but the band bit and that was that. On stage, Borland was known for his eccentricity, frequently wearing elaborate face paint and black-tinted contact lenses.

On October 12, 2001, Borland left Limp Bizkit because, he claims, the band limited his ability to express himself artistically. There were also rumours that Wes believed the band had become a "sell-out" band, and were becoming too popular for their own good. Before leaving Bizkit he formed the band Big Dumb Face as an outlet for his creativity. Big Dumb Face has since been put to the side. Borland then started the band Eat the Day with his brother, Scott Borland. Wes refers to Eat the Day as a "professional version of Goatslayer," a band with which Borland played prior to his career with Limp Bizkit. During the early period of Eat the Day, the band's website released several mp3s with no vocal tracks, asking for interested vocalists to record over the tracks and submit their recordings as an audition to front the band. This gesture was uncomfortably similar to the Limp Bizkit national guitarist audition after Borland left the band, and proved to be ultimately fruitless, other than showcasing what the ultimate sound of the project could have become.

During this down period, Wes also began production on his solo album with friend and producer Danny Lohner of Nine Inch Nails fame. He was also featured twice on the Underworld soundtrack: once on a remix version of the A Perfect Circle song "Weak and Powerless" and another time on the song "The Awakening" with a supergroup of sorts called The Damning Well. The group features Wes Borland on guitars, Danny Lohner on bass, Richard Patrick on vocals and Josh Freese on drums.

In August 2004, Wes Borland rejoined Limp Bizkit. He worked on the their latest album The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1), released on May 3rd, 2005. Borland has also recently contributed guitar work to Rob Zombie's upcoming album, played all the bass on the post-hardcore band From First to Last's upcoming album "Heroine" (after Jon Weisberg left the band), with whom he is also touring.

Borland's latest project Black Light Burns is an industrial/rock band featuring members of Borland's previous band The Damning Well, with Borland this time on Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards and Programming, Danny Lohner on Guitar, Bass, Keys, Programming, Josh Eustis on Programming, Keys and Josh Freese on Drums. The project evolved from Borland's initial attempts at writing a solo effort. From the band's Myspace page: "Final tracking is almost complete on the debut album and the band plans on releasing during the first quarter of 2006 with a world tour to follow." Guests are rumourred to include Carina Round and Johnette Napolitano.

Even though Limp Bizkit is considered to be a stigma upon heavy music by many critics, Wes Borland is generally respected among the music community.

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