Formed in 1992 by guitarist and vocalist, Marissa Martinez, and bassist, Matt Widener, Cretin was the Santa Cruz Mountains' answer to the 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 was resurrected in 2003 when Col Jones quit Exhumed and the three decided that the underground needed a dose of old school grind. The trio recorded a demo in 2004, titled Cretanic Grind Ambush, that Relapse Records released as an Underground Series 7". Relapse Records then signed the band in 2005.

In late 2005 Cretin recorded their first full-length album, Freakery, which was released in 2006. Senses were debauched. Eardrums, assaulted. And the cretanic grind invasion gimped onto the scene with live appearances in San Francisco, Balitmore, and Los Angeles, before being placed on hold once again.

After suppressing a lifelong gender identity conflict, Martinez came out as a transsexual woman and pursued the steps necessary to blossom into womanhood. The band took another hiatus reemerging six years later with Martinez reprising her role on guitar and vocals, and enlisting the talents of lead guitarist Elizabeth Schall (Dreaming Dead).

The band is at it once again, preparing the release of their highly anticipated sophomore album Stranger. Self-recorded in early 2014, Stranger is a perverted homage to the glory days of proto-grind and raw, depraved death metal that is sicker and more twisted than anything they have recorded before. With Stranger Cretin have perfected the lo-fi stylings of Repulsion, Pungent Stench, and early Napalm Death while furthering their own unique brand of utterly deviant extreme metal.