Cranium

Speed Metal Sentence (Necropolis)
by Scott Hefflon

Man, I love these guys! While I only have two of their records, every time I hear Cranium, I hearken back to the glory days of thrash when Kreator shredded like a motherfucker and a less-fat Baloff yipped and growled such gems as “Taste the sweet blood of one another, sharing without any greed, bang your head as if up from the dead, cuz metal is all that you need” for Exodus. Cranium continues in that oh-so-German tradition of finely-tuned speed metal, yet they incorporate a sense of humor, sometimes dark and grisly, other times just goofy. It’s guitar soloing heaven, with falsetto screams abound, and the paces’ll have squirrels outside your window panting to keep up. With classics like “Nymphomaniac Nuns” and “Pestilential Penis” on this eight-song EP, how can you go wrong?
(PO Box 14815 Fremont, CA 94539)