During the early years of Death Metal (let’s mark its beginning in 1985, with the release of POSSESSED’s “Seven Churches”), the genre was on its embryonic form, with bands doing the genre their own way. But with the coming of the Second Wave in 1989 (unleashed by the release of “Altars of Madness”), it started to be fracted in an ample range of subgenres. Two of them are Technical Death Metal and Brutal Death Metal, both ignited by acts as SUFFOCATION, and in a moment, they were fused. And this fusion is found on “Surge of Cruelty”, the second full-length of CYTOLYSIS.

Mixed and mastered by Darren Cesca, the overwhelming sonority of this release is far from the usual: it’s brutal and aggressive as a Death Metal subgenre must be, but with things in a very good level of definition, what allows the hearers to access what is musically expressed. And the artwork of Vladimir Cebakov is sick, disgusting and excellent, fitting on what is musically depicted on the album. And as guest vocals, here are Mac Smith on “Devout Sacrifice”, Brian Forgue on “A Blood-Soaked Offering”, Adam Mason on “Tortured Flesh”, and Flo Butcher on “Mark of the Demons”.

For those into Death Metal, Darren Cesca’s name isn’t unknown, because on his curriculum are names as DEEDS OF FLESH, VILE, ESCHATON, STRAPPADO, HIDEOUS DEFORMITY and many others. Ok, it’s clear that this is a Death Metal release - specifically a wise mix between Brutal Death Metal and Technical Death Metal - where it’s brutal and technical (it’s obvious, isn’t it?), and even having to deal with many clichés, it’s a very good release, indeed, full of energy and extremely spontaneous.

As told above, if you’re into Death Metal subgenres, of course that “Your Slow Demise”, “Devout Sacrifice”, “Surge of Cruelty”, “Consenting Brood”, “A Blood-Soaked Offering”, “Ritual Carnage” (a short and climatic instrumental), “Tribal Savagery”, “Tortured Flesh”, “Mark of the Demons”, “Innocence is Raped” and “Hung from the Rafters” will present a very good sets of guitar riffs, thunderous bass guitar and drums parts with extremely low death growls, and it’ll be a fun time, and done with very good technical appeal. But it seems sometimes that Darren can do better than is shown.

“Surge of Cruelty” is a very good release, and paves the way of CYTOLYSIS as a strong name for Technical/Brutal Death Metal.