If you don’t know the name Darren Cesca, you certainly know the bands he has drummed for over the years: Pillory, Arsis, Goratory, Incinerate, In Asymmetry, Serpent of Gnosis, Deeds of Flesh, and what was a surprise to me, the 2006 Burn In Silence album, Angel Maker– a metalcore album drenched in keyboards.

Here is the second effort from his solo project Cytolysis (a medical term for cell disintegration), and I went into this blind, as I have not heard the prior effort, Portraits of Malevolence. But I can’t imagine there is a drastic shift from his debut to this.

While this is certainly in the unsurprising, Comatose Records/brutal death metal wheelhouse, but like the recent Cordyceps, this has a nice groove, lumbering vibe as opposed to 100% blasting, though there is plenty, as well as a little bit of brutal melody.

Imagine Pathology with a little simpler groove as tracks like “Surge of Cruelty”, “Tribal Savagery”, “Tortured Flesh”, “Mark of the Demons”, and “Innocence is Raped” show amid the standard pinch harmonic filled, broodle death metal Comatose assault. I daresay, they might even be ‘catchy’.

Now, admittedly, he’s not the greatest vocalist; his growls and screams aren’t quite as powerful as his peers in the genre, but as expected, the drumming is top-notch, as the bass/guitar work is par for the genre.

But I can’t say I’m going to be clamoring to listen to this once the review is written. It’s solid, and at times surprisingly restrained, especially for a Comatose release, but there have been some impressive brutal/slam/tech death releases in 2025, and Cytolysis, just isn’t quite up there with them.

[Surge of Cruelty by CYTOLYSIS">Visit the band's website]

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