Somebody, possibly in meme form, once said “in someone’s story you’ll always be the bad guy” and regardless of what you do you won’t be able to change what people think of you if you only had a short crossing of paths in life. Ultimately, we should never base an opinion of anyone based on our brief interactions with one another because that may not be the form they would become, only a piece.

For California-based singer, songwriter, producer, audio-explorer Sespool, his real sound is only starting to come to light. Those who wrote him off or assumed his sound before his latest release will be kicking themselves.

You haven’t seen anything yet.

Teasing the release of Before The Fog Covers Me in June with the single “Newsflash” Sespool gave us a glimpse into the exploratory nature of the new seven tracks. The nibble of retro nods was, in part, a misdirection, but hardly detracting.    

Before The Fog Covers Me swings a heavy hand with the opening self-titled track, bares its teeth in “Buried Beneath the Sickness is Sweetness”, but fully develops in tracks like “Lost Waves Crash” where the array of Sespool’s sound comes to a head. Rock explodes (perhaps in a spiked metal fashion) with the shuttering “Twilight Plight” and the newest album sooths in its final act via “Can We Heal?”. The echoed poetic assemblies of Sespool skirt the edges of post-industrial blends embodying a sense of isolation within a sprawling city while reflecting on the chaos through the lens of an artist. Well-balanced, culminating in a mix of synth, rock, hip-hop beats, airy harmonies, and edges where they matter, Before The Fog Covers Me draws on a wealth of experience from an incredibly talented musician and strikes in all the right ways.

If you’ve come across Sespool’s prior work and come to a conclusion, like we have, you’re going to want to take another look. I’ll be the first to say it, Sespool is an incredibly difficult sound to pinpoint if only because his art reflects his experience and like the assumptions we make on our interactions, these can and will change. The latest change for Sespool comes in the beautifully assembled Before The Fog Covers Me. Check it out October 9th.