AZIOLA CRY – Dysphoria Ritual (Album Review)

The beauty and torment of discontentment

Progressive rock and metal can thrive in a vast multiplicity of contexts, but arguably the most difficult one for it to maintain a level of accessibility is in the abstract one of purely instrumental expression. It is a setting where the generally esoteric and niche topics that the subgenre(s) lends itself to can often be lost in a sea of virtuosic twists and turns, to speak nothing of the overt showboating that can emerge when a fold of technicians get going on a series of musical ideas for more than a 5-minute duration.

Yet this delicate craft is where Chicago, Illinois-born power trio Aziola Cry has continued to sporadically challenge the preconceptions of metal music itself since their mid-2000s founding, and their 3^rd studio LP, dubbed Dysphoria Ritual, takes on the peculiar subject of extreme personal unease and discomfort and turns it into a 45-minute exposition of artistic depth and intrigue.

The same lineup that put together this album’s 2021 predecessor, The Ironic Divide has been maintained, breaking a past tradition of switching out drummers on all previous studio releases and reprising the same stripped-down yet dense arrangement. The kit work of Tommy Murray hearkens a bit towards the jazzy and loose-flowing yet precise approach that typified the performances of Neil Peart during his later years with Rush, establishing a generally mid-paced yet highly intricate set of grooves.

The guitar work of Mike Milaniak also makes frequent stylistic allusions to Rush when exploring lead territory, regularly channeling the crunchy and roaming quality of Alex Lifeson, yet also opting for a heavier metallic riffing approach that reminisces upon the darker side of the progressive coin in the late 90s. But the lynchpin that turns the arrangement from a standard power trio into something far more vast and dense is the dual bottom end and counterpart melodic content put forth by Jason Blake on the warr guitar.

True to their commitment to drawing outside the lines, this avant-garde fold proves highly apt in effectively communicating the message of this opus without the need for words, as anyone flying blind while first experiencing these songs can easily surmise that they are pointing to a state of elaborate and personal disquiet.

From the dissonant beginning of the opening entry “Denial Patterns”, throughout the highly nuanced 8-minute crescendo of varying themes and transition points that it culminates in, a sense of pure unease is established despite every moving part working together in perfect synchronicity. In fact, one might be tempted to assume that this trio let the cat out of the bag completely on the first song given how many varying elements are thrown into the mix, but when the spacey introduction of “Pervasive Sameness” hits that first punchy groove and vacillates seamlessly between a metallic stomp and a soft jazzy ballad-based contrast, it becomes clear that this entire album is equally proportioned.

Though it’s a fool’s errand to select a single composition from this 6-part cycle that stands out the most, each song stands apart in its own unique way and can easily stand alone from the pack. The heavy and forbidding “Ephemeral Joy” definitely lands the hardest and comes with the most technically charged individual performances between Milaniak’s agitated lead guitar bursts and Blake’s polyphonic and rhythmically complex riffing.

“The Delusion Complex” plays the most with dynamic contrast, with a seesaw approach to loud and soft, to speak nothing of the sharp tempo shifts and extreme busyness of Murray’s drum work. On the shorter side of the coin, “Withdrawn And Alone” takes the cake in terms of dissonant timbres and takes the overall anxiety factor up to a 10, mixing noodling clean jazz guitar work with intermittent bursts of punchy distorted segments. Yet for a song that could easily sum up the entirety of this album’s highly abstract and complex character, the closer and title track “Dysphoria Ritual” covers every base hit earlier in the album and functions like a more elaborate mirror to the opener “Denial Patterns”.

Arguably, the only thing that really works against this album is the same thing that could be said about Aziola Cry’s approach since their inception, namely that it’s so unconventional that it could easily fly over the head of 95% of the general public, even if preceded by a synopsis of each individual song. It’s definitely a work that understands its target audience and speaks directly to them consistently from start to finish, almost like a veteran translator adapting the lingo of King Crimson and Tool for a crowd that prefers to communicate outside the medium of the spoken word.

Those with a penchant for the unconventional, a love for those that aren’t afraid to explore the many possibilities of their respective instruments, and aren’t allergic to songs that clock in well beyond the confines of typical terrestrial radio fodder, will definitely be drawn to what this has to offer, as they were to this outfit’s spiritual ancestors, Gordian Knot, 2 decades prior.

Release Date: April 17th, 2026
Record Label: 7D Media
Genre: Progressive Metal

Musicians:

• Jason Blake / Warr guitar
• Mike Milaniak / Guitar
• Tommy Murray / Drums

Dysphoria Ritual Tracklist:

1. Denial Patterns
2. Pervasive Sameness
3. Ephemeral Joy
4. The Delusion Complex
5. Withdrawn And Alone
6. Dysphoria Ritual

Order the album here.