Portland post-hardcore/noise rock trio Rhododendron announce new album »Ascent Effort« on The Flenser; first single »Firmament« out now!

Portland, Oregon based post-hardcore/noise rock trio Rhododendron is gearing up to release their new album, »Ascent Effort«, due out on May 15th, 2026 via The Flenser.

Listen ti the first single and opening track »Firmament« below!

Tracklist:
01. Firmament
02. Like Spitting Out Copper
03. Stow
04. Family Photo
05. Within Crippling Light

Courtesy of The Flenser:

Transformation, growth, and rebirth drive »Ascent Effort«, the latest release from Portland, Oregon trio Rhododendron. The title points upward, but not toward arrival. The record documents a period of change defined as much by instability as progress, where confusion and renewal unfold at the same pace.

Formed in 2019 while the band’s members were still in high school, Rhododendron’s Ezra Chong (guitar, vocals), Gage Walker (bass), and Noah Mortola (drums) set out to push their musical limits without regard for genre boundaries or audience expectation. For »Ascent Effort«, the band joined the roster of The Flenser, aligning with a label that has long championed artists who work in tension rather than comfort.

In the past 7 years the trio has developed a sound rooted in technical precision and repetition. Drawing from the angular experimentation of underground rock in the 1980s and 1990s alongside elements of jazz, ambient, and progressive music, their compositions are deliberate with intensity. Riffs fracture and reform, rhythms lock into patterns only to break apart, and extended passages build pressure before shifting direction.

Photo by @evunuve

Performing regularly in Portland, the band has cultivated an intense and loyal local following. The live setting hardened the material. Songs grew heavier, sharper, more physical through repetition and high volume.

The material that became »Ascent Effort« was tested on tour before entering the studio. Written largely in sequence, the album traces a period of personal change and internal friction. Growth is not always clean; sometimes it grinds forward. Nothing resolves without cost. Confusion and strain do not sit outside the songs, they shape their architecture. That is what the band has accomplished with »Ascent Effort«, a work that is not always clean but well-shaped by struggle and growth. The Pacific Northwest lingers in the background of the record, its long winters and brief summers echoing the album’s shifts between abrasion and restraint.

»Ascent Effort« does not offer catharsis in the traditional sense. It allows tension to remain. In that unresolved space, transformation takes form and a band in motion is revealed.

Pre-order/pre-save the album HERE.

Photo by James Rexroad

Recorded by Nicholas Wilbur and Zach Sullivan at The Unknown in Anacortes, Washington.
Vocals recorded by Noah Mortola at ADX in Portland, Oregon.
Edited by Noah Mortola.
Mixed by Scott Evans at Antisleep Audio in Oakland, California.
Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, Oregon.

Rhododendron on tour:
5/6/26 Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s*
5/7/26 Las Vegas, NV – The Usual Place*
5/8/26 Oceanside, CA – Pour House*
5/9/26 Los Angeles, Ca – The Echo*
5/10/26 Oakland, CA – Stork Club*
*supporting Dazzling Killmen

Record release show:
5/30/26 Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater w/ Sea Moss

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well