Album Review: Cytotoxin – “Biographyte” (Technical/Brutal Death Metal)

Written by Kep

You sense it before you really hear it: a faint clicking, a mechanical tick that gets faster and faster, urging you to turn back. The landscape ahead is a wasteland, plants withering in heavy gray air, buildings hollowed and collapsing in on themselves, and no life—not a person, not a bird, not a mouse, nothing—can be seen. Then, in the distance, another sound: roaring, squealing, pounding…is that…is that a…blast beat?

That’s right, Cytotoxin are back, baby. Grab your PPE, enjoy that last gasp of breathable air, and let’s enter the deadzone.

If this is your first time encountering the kings of nuclear meltdown metal, then welcome to the post-apocalyptic party, pal. Here’s what you’re in for: burly grooving ultra-rhythmic riffing, preposterously fast flurries of fret gymnastics, gargantuan roars and brees, and some of the most precise technical work you’ll hear. Cytotoxin albums are a whirlwind of a time, substantial but never dragging, bruising and breathtaking but not without moments of atmosphere. Biographyte, the band’s fifth album, is no exception on any of these fronts, and continues the overarching trend—particularly notable since 2017’s Gammageddon—of using slick, clean production rather than the grimier brutal death approach of the first couple albums. 

Every Cytotoxin hallmark is here on Biographyte, up to and including multiple appearances of a clicking Geiger counter, the heavy breathing of persons both protected by a gas mask and not, and spoken word, all as atmospheric touches. The mostly relentless 48-minute runtime is broken up by two somber interludes—“Deadzone Desert” an introspective acoustic meditation, “Revelations” a sort of skit. The other nine tracks are an assortment of exhilarating powerhouses, chock full of the sort of blindingly technical wizardry and chunky brutality the band has brought us to expect. 

The album opens with an extended burst of breathtakingly fast tapped arpeggios from both guitar and bass, and it’s off to the races from there. Guitarists Fabrice “Fonzo” Töpfer and Jason “Mathias” Melidonie lay out everything they’ve got and then some across this record, with “Hope Terminator” serving as a nice microcosm. Stuttering stop-start rhythms, choppy syncopations galore, nasty pinch harmonics, scything tremolo melodies, grooves heavier than a mountain of uranium, crushing breakdowns, and of course their signature light speed arpeggios. Bassist Vitalis “V.T.” Kast matches them step for step, showcasing massive steely tone and outstanding precision; that bottom end is the reason that apocalyptic passages like the one at 3:40 in “Condemnesia” feel so enormous and horrible, and even though he solos rarely, those few moments are always memorable. Drummer Maximilian Panzer, who joined the group in 2023, delivers an amazing, ultra-precise turn behind the kit, and vocalist Sebastian “Grimo” Grihm and his familiar monstrous roar still fits the whole destructive outfit to a t. 

Perhaps Biographyte’s greatest achievement is that each track feels distinct and they don’t run together even a little bit, which is a testament to the band’s songwriting ability as well to their conceptual approach. This is a concept album centered around the Chernobyl disaster, each song focused on a specific location in and around Chernobyl and Pripyat, and maybe that’s why this album stands out in Cytotoxin’s discography as having particularly well-developed and distinct songs. “Behind Armored Doors”, for example, is a white-hot breathless rush of rapid picking with jabbing accented notes that culminates in a towering breakdown, while the title track, which honors the firefighters who were exposed to destructive radiation in the immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl meltdown, leans on frantic flurries and urgent, harried riffs for most of its runtime, but also features a remarkably emotive solo that feels poignant and sorrowful. “Eventless Horizon”, similarly, employs a soaring solo that seems to lament as much as it depicts terror, and the slippery arpeggiated sequence at the top of “Bulloverdozed” is nifty enough that I ran the recording back to hear it again before enjoying the rest of the track’s brutality, some passages seeming to swell and mutate as they developed. Closer “From Bitter Rivers” is Cytotoxin’s longest track to date at over six minutes and feels appropriately final, angrily bitter melodies juxtaposed against huge crashing rhythms, thick heavy ropey riffs, and vicious quick picking.

THE BOTTOM LINE

When it comes to this sort of super fast, über-technical brutal death, there are few who do it at the level of Cytotoxin. Biographyte is more proof of that elite reputation, a monster collection of exhilarating tracks that are indisputably on brand and particularly well-written. Strap on your gas mask, grab your Geiger counter, and keep your breath steady; this album is pure nuclear energy.