Daddy's Little Girl

To most people, Cretin vocalist/guitarist Dan Martinez was your typical underground death metal/grindcore dude. But that all transformed a year ago when Dan became Marissa, and started changing the gender rules of extreme music, one plastic surgery at a time.

Death changes everything when you’re five years old. In the case of Cretin frontman Dan Martinez, a night of drunk driving took his father’s life, leaving the only child with one option: become the Man of the House… before finishing kindergarten. “Even though I had a stepfather, my grandparents would say, ‘Your dad was such a great guy; he’d walk into a room and it’d light up because people loved him so much,’” remembers Martinez. “He did no wrong in their eyes. Hearing that when you’re five leaves you thinking, ‘Oh my god, he’s Superman.’ And it’s impossible to live up to that—to be him, basically.” Assuming a paternal role in between naptime and learning one’s ABCs was especially difficult in Martinez’s case due to an everyday struggle with gender issues. Not with sexuality, ...

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