For fans of Hesse Kassel, Black Country, New Road, Uniform, that rising brand of extremely intense and uncomfortably personal noise rock, and an anxious spiral where you spend all day wondering whether you left the oven on when you left the house, Vaho by Asia Menor meets us at the moment when everything falls apart, using an extremely varied post hardcore palette to show us those problems we’ve ignored for far too long. The anxiety of active denial comes through in frantic drums and wild riffs, unexpectedly kicking up the pace at even the album’s quietest and most introspective moments. As this momentum builds into a punishing, pulsing onslaught of noise rock, however, our denial boils over into outright rage, lashing out in all directions as we repeatedly fail to find the source of our pain. In either state, we’re completely and totally trapped, forced to finally face consequences whether we take them in cold contemplation or vengeful wrath, left with no choice but to surrender to the dissonant noise of our own negligence.
