Fort Wayne-based Graves of the Endless Fall play a brand of hardcore metal music that falls somewhere between the death metal licks of Cannibal Corpse and the punk inklings of Skrape. Thrown into the mix are hints of poet Dylan Thomas.

After all, the band takes its mouthful of a name from the Thomas poem, “Vision and Prayer.”

“The name just kind of stuck,” says GravesÇ vocalist John Cheesebrew.

Cheesebrew, Eric Rutkowski, Adam Walker and Eddie Paroczy, all on guitar and Adam Lewis on drums and Byron Wendling on bass, form the line-up for the band, which is beginning to make a name for itself in the local hard music scene.

To help solidify that name, Graves recently put out a demo tape with six of their original songs. The demon was recorded at a studio owned by G. Montgomery who plays in the band Fog.

Graves guitarist Walker also plays in Fog. “We trusted his judgment in recording our music,” Rutkowski said. “In other words, he’s got skills.”

The 6-song demo highlights Graves’ heavy, thrashy style. It also features a reprint of the painting Saint Jerome in his Study by Caravaggio.

“We appreciate the irony of the elements of death, darkness and religion that that style of art presents, and how they mix with our music,” Rutkowski says of the painting, which features a monk studying a skull.

Another thing that “just kind of stuck” about the band was its performance of the Johnny Cash tune “The Beast in Me” at a tribute for the former country music star last fall at the Brass Rail in Fort Wayne.

“We do the odd Johnny Cash cover at our live shows,” Rutkowski adds. Fans, he says, continue to request the song.

Graves got together in the fall of 2002 and played their first gig on New Years Eve of that year. Band members all knew each other and had played in a variety of local bands before forming Graves, Cheesebrew says.

Graves, he adds, “formed from the disintegration of those other bands.”

“We’re all really into heavy music,” says Rutkowski. “We all come from different backgrounds and have played in different bands. We all bring different threads to the music.”

Lyrically, Cheesebrew says he prefers themes based on “everyday life” and ideas “that intrigue me.”

Although the band will play “wherever anyone wants us to,” they’ve become regulars of sorts on the stages at Legends Sports Bar, the Brass Rail, Columbia Street West and Howard’s in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Graves got turned on to Howard’s after Jimmy Fredrick, a jockey who hosts a metal show for WBGU in Bowling Green, discovered the band.

Aside from the demo, Graves have not extensively pursued the idea of recording music - especially when it comes to record deals.

“We have some interest in it, but it’s not our primary focus,” Rutkowski says.

He adds that the band has not had any offers from record labels, which, for the members of Graves of the Endless Fall, at least, isn’t really a measure of success anyway. “We are at a point now where people are interested and impressed by what we do,” Rutkowski says.

In the meantime, the goal of the band continues to be a cross between something members “have to get up and do” as well as, at least for Rutkowski, a vent for the frustrations and tribulations of everyday life.

Graves of the Endless Fall next play on March 6 at the Brass Rail. They also play at Razors in Fort Wayne on March 25.