Toxik

W

hat would become the modern day Toxik was formed in 1985 by Josh Christian (guitars) and Lee Erwin (bass) under the name Tokyo including Sal Dadabo (drums) and Mike Sanders (vocals), but not long after forming they changed their name to Toxik due to legal threats by another act under with the same name but not before tinkering with the name Mantikor for a short stint.

Soon after changing their name to Toxik, Ervin decided to leave due to personal reasons and was replaced by Brian Bonini. Tad Leger was a last minute replacement for Sal Dadabo, who was offered a touring deal with Twisted Sister soon after, but in the end this never came to pass. The 1986 Wasteland demo resulted, with the debut proper, World Circus (1987) following soon after.

The sophomore effort, Think This (1989), featured Charles Sabin (vocals) and John Donnelly (guitars/keyboards/vocals (backing)). Toxik decided to quit in 1992 but reformed in 2007 without recording. Soon after this brief reunion, a documentary was planned entitled This is Toxik around 2008/09 with a trailer released on YouTube, but the show has so far remained unavailable.

Toxik reformed in 2013 to release the Breaking Clas$ EP in 2017 under the membership of the returning Christian and Sabin with James DeMaria (drums) and Shane Boulos (bass). Kinetic Closure followed in 2020 with Ron Iglesias assuming vocals, while Bill Bodily took bass and Jason Bittner assumed drums for the In Humanity EP (2020), and Eric van Druten took guitars (rhythm) for Dis Morta (2022) released before their first live effort, Dynamo Open Air 1988 (2023).