ESSES Share ‘Before The Blight’ Video

Oakland post-punk quintet ESSES are set to return with their sophomore album, Bloodletting For The Lonely,that deals with topics such as mental health, memory, and trauma. Bloodletting For The Lonely will be released on the 6th August on digital, vinyl, and CD formats via Atakra Records and Bat-Cave Productions. As the third and final single from Bloodletting For The Lonely, ESSES have now shared the video for Before the Blight.

‘Before the Blight’ was written prior to COVID, but one could make an easy connection to the desire of going back to life (in most aspects) prior to the Pandemic. We aren’t sure how Kel was able to foresee the desire to ‘send us back before the blight’ that later became the year 2020, but we are definitely paying attention to her warnings moving forward! The video depicts an alternate timeline where at one point a decision was made by man that sent us spiraling down our current experience. The video portrays this with the red contrast being the moment that decision was made and the destruction that has ensued based on man’s impact (represented by footage from a rail car of the 1906 earthquake that toppled San Francisco). Kel is seen trapped between the timelines as man compounds his efforts and sends us plummeting further down this forsaken path, corrupting the hearts and minds of humankind. Kel later appears as a glitch in the timeline and at one point corrupts the systems of man to reverse his efforts and hopefully send us back. There is a literal depiction of a woman undoing the work of man as the timeline shifts from the red contrast to its normal state. But have we gone too far?” (bassist Scout Leight)

Bloodletting For The Lonely can be pre-ordered via Bandcamp & Bat-Cave Productions.