Sheer Terror

Sheer Terror is a hardcore punk group from New York, active from 1984 to the present. It forms around vocalist Paul Bearer, guitarist Alan Blake, bassist Baron “Barry” Misuraca and drummer Sam “Reid” Lohman, and the line-up changes repeatedly over the years. Other members include Mark Neuman, Jason Martin, Mike “Chickie” Walter, Keith “Zippy” McAdam, Dave Todd, Pat Cronin, Tony Scaglione, Jay Banks, John Lafata and Gary Bennett, among others. The band is associated with hardcore, hatecore, NYHC and punk.

Style and significance

Sheer Terror is noted as one of the first hardcore punk bands to blend heavy metal elements into a hardcore framework. That heavier approach helps shape the sound of later hardcore acts, with the band’s riffing and guitar tone drawing on metal influence. Paul Bearer’s stage manner also becomes part of the band’s identity: it is blunt, confrontational and often humorous, and it divides audiences as much as it attracts them.

Early releases and Blackout Records

The band first appears in 1984 and is featured on the 1985 compilation One Big Crowd. It also records two cassette demos, No Grounds For Pity and Fall From Grace. After an early split caused by personality conflicts, Bearer returns to New York and re-forms the group with Blake, later adding Mark Neuman and Jason Martin. Sheer Terror then develops a long association with Blackout Records, which issues material on the compilation Where the Wild Things Are in 1989 and also releases the live 7-inch Live At CBGB.

Albums and later line-ups

The band’s debut full-length, Just Can’t Hate Enough, appears in 1990. It is engineered by Tommy Victor of Prong and records at CBGB outside normal show hours. The album is released in Germany on Starving Missile Records and later in the United States under the Blackout name. It becomes an important release in the development of the heavier hardcore sound associated with bands such as Biohazard and Killing Time.

By this stage Neuman moves from bass to guitar, with Mike “Chickie” Walter joining on bass before being replaced by Keith “Zippy” McAdam. This line-up records Ugly And Proud in 1991, although the album is initially shelved by Maze Records. In response, the band re-records much of the material and releases Thanks Fer Nuthin on Blackout. Maze later issues Ugly And Proud as well, leaving two versions with largely the same songs in circulation.

The Old, New, Borrowed, And Blue EP follows, mixing an old song, a new song, a cover of The Saints’ “Everything’s Fine” and the slower “Goodbye, Farewell”. The cover uses a photograph of Bearer’s parents’ wedding, and Bearer and Neuman later describe it as their favourite Sheer Terror release because of Josh Silver’s production. The band also makes its only music video for “Broken”, which shows a live-action version of the song’s alcoholic circus clown subject.

Love Songs for the Unloved and break-up

The attention around “Broken” leads to a deal with MCA, which releases Love Songs for the Unloved in 1995. Tommy Victor produces the album, which moves toward slower songs and more clean, operatic singing from Bearer, while “For Rudy The Kraut” includes a horn section with a ska-like feel. The record does not meet expectations and MCA drops the band.

After more internal conflict, Cronin and Neuman leave. Sheer Terror continues with Tony Scaglione on drums and Jay Banks on guitar, including a U.S. tour with Napalm Death. The band then breaks up, returns in 1997 with John Lafata and Gary Bennett, and eventually ends its original run in 1998 after a European tour.

Reunion

In 2004 the group reunites for farewell shows at CBGB in New York, with Bearer, Neuman, Chickie and Cronin back together. Two sold-out dates take place on 9 and 10 October, and footage from those shows, along with a documentary, later appears on the 2005 DVD Beaten By The Fists Of God. The documentary includes comments from figures in punk and hardcore such as members of Dropkick Murphys, Life of Agony, North Side Kings and Blood For Blood, as well as former band members. Bearer also sings in the New York band Joe Coffee and releases a bootleg compilation of stage banter under the name Reverend Paul Bearer.