Formed in 1992 by guitarist and vocalist, Marissa Martinez, and bassist, Matt Widener, Cretin was the Santa Cruz Mountains' answer to the new wave of death metal and grind that was infesting the scene. They spent two years with a multitude of different drummers and ultimately put the band on hold to focus on other things. Cretin laid dormant while Widener joined gore metal band, Exhumed, in 1994 where he met drummer, Col Jones. In 1996, Widener went insane and left the band to enlist in the Marines