Cranium

Sweden's Cranium signaled their devotion to speed metal right from the start through a sequence of bluntly titled releases: the 1997 EP Speed Metal Satan, Speed Metal Slaughter the following year, and Speed Metal Sentence in 1999. Their sound drew directly from the high-velocity style popularized in the 1980s by Sodom, Destruction, and Hellhammer. The core lineup consisted of vocalist/guitarist Fredrik Söderberg, guitarist Gustaf Von Segebaden, bassist Philip Von Segebaden, and drummer Johan Hallberg, who stepped in for Joakim Pettersson after the debut EP. Happily, the musicians treated the whole enterprise with little gravity, an attitude well suited to an otherwise humorless heavy metal climate.