Kraanium is a Norwegian brutal death metal band. The group was founded in 2001 by the twin brothers Martin and Mats Funderud. Having played previously in hardcore and black metal projects together, the brothers seeked out for a heavier project. Their original idea for a band name was "Cranium", but having seen that this band name was used several times before, they desired to innovate the word and spelling for it. The word "kranium" is Norwegian for "skull" and is pronounced the exact same as "cranium" in English. The band's first demo was self-pressed and released in 2002. Their early sound heard on this demo was inspired heavily by grindcore and deathgrind acts. Comparable to the liking of Exhumed and Carcass. The band then went on a long four year hiatus with the band until picking back up on it in 2006. With no bass player active in the group anymore, the band played a few local shows in the Oslo area without a bassist. At one point, Kraanium jokingly said to the audience at one gig "we still need a bass player." To which Ian Slemming stepped forth to them and said he would like to join the band. Slemming has been an active member ever since then. By 2007, Kraanium began to incorporate slams in their music and wanted to incorporate a slam death metal sound liking to that of Devourment, Dying Fetus, Condemned and Abominable Putridity. The band recorded two promo CD's in 2007 and 2008 respectively before releasing their debut-full length album Ten Acts of Sickening Perversity through Pathologically Explicit Recordings; an extreme metal record label based in Spain.