Cranial Torment

Originally consisting of main-man Bill Benakis (vocals, guitars, bass) and drummer Costas Vaxevanos (known also for his work as graphic designer, fanzine creator and label boss), CRANIAL TORMENT offered old school brutal Death Metal. Gratifyingly brutal in fact, with washes of tremolo-based, down-tuned riffs hitting the eardrums, yet infused with enough melody to keep the listener’s attention. It wouldn’t be totally outrageous to assume that CRANIAL TORMENT got their name from the debut demo of the Finnish Death Metal act FUNEBRE – a band known for effective combination of thunderous Death Metal and dark melodicism.

The music remained fairly consistent in terms of both style and quality on CRANIAL TORMENT’s two first demo tapes “Decaying in the Mud” (1998) and “The Triumph of Impudence” (1999), with the biggest change being that Costas left the drum position in 1999; resulting in a shift from flesh-and-blood- to digital percussion. However, the third demo, entitled “Death is Rising” (1999), differs from the others. Here songs has taken a turn towards the primitive, both rhythmically and in terms of melodic contour, while the addition of wandering, almost Heavy Metal-styled guitar solos certainly adds a schizophrenic character to the music.

The endearingly-titled (ahem) “Thoughts of a Graverobber” from the band’s final release “Death is Rising” must have resonated with the underground, as it appeared on at least three or four different compilation tapes in 2000.

Compilation appearances:
* Crush the World [Cass, Comp: Mortuary Khage Productions, 2000]
* Metalchohol Compilation Vol. 1 [Cass, Comp: Bastard ‘Zine/Dist, 2000]
* Putrefied Corpses Chapter I [Cass, Comp, Limited: Self-released, 2000]
* Grind or be Grinded! [Cass, Comp: Jedi Govna Tapes, 2001]
* La Mort Nuit Gravement À La Santé [Cass, Comp, Limited: Zézette Productions, ?]