Album Review: Cytotoxin - Biographyte (2025)
- Stuart Ball
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Written: 7th April 2025
Cytotoxin, the German death metal juggernaut, have carved a distinct niche in the genre with their radioactive blend of brutal death metal, technicality and lyrical themes drawn from nuclear catastrophe. Since their debut album – Plutonium Heaven in 2011, they have pushed the envelope of extreme metal, which culminated most recently in the critically acclaimed Nuklearth in 2020. With their fifth album – Biographyte – due for release in a few days, Cytotoxin step into the aftermath of the Chernobyl tragedy almost forty years after the worst nuclear accident in history.
Cytotoxin waste no time with gentle introductions. Hope Terminator begins the album at break neck speed, with guitarists Fabrice 'Fonzo' Töpfer and Jason 'Mathias' Melidonie plunging headfirst into the chaos of the Chernobyl disaster with seismic force. Guttural vocals, blast-driven percussion, and chainsaw riffs evoke the panic of first responders confronting the burning reactor. A stoic breathing in a concrete coffer / Seething reactor - fire like no other / Atom-driven lights purge shadows from the alley / Hope vanished - last grade catastrophe. Soviet misinformation and ideological collapse are underscored through vivid imagery and mournful lines. As the track’s ferocity peaks, a blasting but haunting melodic outro offers a jarring emotional shift—mourning the lives lost in a disaster humanity was not ready for.
Continuing to showcase Cytotoxin’s technical prowess and brutal precision, Condemnesia moves through varied tempos from fast, blast-beat driven segments to slower, crushing breakdowns. Sharp, tight guitar riffs are complemented by relentless drumming, creating an almost chaotic, disorienting atmosphere that mirrors the panic of medical staff, the suffering victims and the emotional and physical toll of the disaster. Arpeggio style guitar breaks are delivered with razor-sharp accuracy and the rhythm shifts keep the listener on edge, while the agonised moans of someone trapped inside the building is truly unnerving. Condemnesia ends with the sound of a clock or watch, the ever increasing speed of the ticking signalling the devastating inevitability of the situation.
Behind Armoured Doors is just as rapid as the preceding two tracks but there is stomping groove to the proceedings. Blast beats clash with doomy, epic choruses soaked in eerie melody. The tempo switches are surgical and jarring, echoing the bureaucratic hesitation that doomed so many. The final breakdown is slow, crushing, and inescapable, bassist Vitalis 'V.T.' Kast and drummer Maximilian Panzer combining with colossal results. Biographyte - the title track - is a visceral tribute to the doomed firefighters who braved the reactor’s inferno, collecting searing graphite with bare hands in a futile effort to contain the disaster. Begin with blistering riffs, Biographyte blends technical destruction with narrative weight. Mid-song, the pace slows for a segment of slow burning intensity; a stunning solo adds some emotional nuance evoking the human and cultural loss buried under years of secrecy. Those that rose the torch of hope / From within hellish craters / Those that felt the pulse of duty / Driven the hearts of liquidators.
Two minute instrumental Deadzone Desert, a title which mirrors the barren environment pictured on the album cover – by Chilean illustrator and tattoo artist German Latorres - gives a short respite from the pummelling attack. We hear the chains of the masked figure being dragged through the exclusion zone. Winds howl and acoustic guitars help conjure a desolate beauty in the way Cytotoxin craft the soundscape of ruin. The Everslave reminds us that there is no escape from the cohesive but merciless onslaught. Cytotoxin further highlight their understanding of tempo manipulation, shifting from frenzied velocity to suffocating down-tempo grooves. Sebastian ‘Grimo’ Grihm unleashes a subterranean growl-fest with deep, guttural roars that resonate like echoes. He is precise and primal, matching the instrumental ferocity.
Perhaps the most compositionally adventurous track and one of the best songs on the record, Eventless Horizon mixes melodic guitar flourishes with punishing death metal foundation. The emotional depth is striking. In places, the lead guitar sings rather than shreds, and lamenting undertones float like an unnerving fog around our feet. Biographyte was recorded at Kohkeller Studios and with razor-sharp production by Mendel bij de Leij, the mix balances every instrument with pristine detail without ever feeling too clinical or polished. Benefitting enormously from such values, tracks such as Bulloverdozed and Transition of the Staring Dead – which opens with a short bass solo – are among the most rhythmically complex songs here.
Penultimate track Revelation is a spoken word piece: eerie, chilling and bleak. Winds circle again, a bell tolls and we hear footsteps and deep breaths as someone approaches a creaking door. With words from the eighth chapter of Revelation joined by the clicking of a Geiger counter, the effect is rather unsettling. Ending the album, From Bitter Rivers, steadily builds, initially stomping and purposeful, later frantic and aggressive. Summing up everything the band have to offer, it is a compelling way to conclude this dark journey.
Biographyte is a cataclysmic slab of technical brutal death metal that finds Cytotoxin at their most focused, refined, and thematically driven. Rooted in the horrors of the Chernobyl disaster, the album is both a sonic assault and a harrowing narrative. The band are, without doubt, excellent musicians but the album transcends mechanical virtuosity adding layers of soul-scarring humanity. It is also an act of musical remembrance with the quintet deploying every weapon in their arsenal: bone-breaking rhythm shifts, operatic song structures, sometimes dizzying technicality, superb individual performances and claustrophobia inducing atmospheres. The two short interludes aside – which in themselves serve an important purpose - Biographyte is relentless, yes - but it is also deeply human, soaked in grief and empathy. It stands as a metal monument to the past and it demands to be heard.
Biographyte is released on 11th April 2025.
Cytotoxin online