Biography
Throughout the closing years of the 1980s and the opening stretch of the 1990s, Sheer Terror anchored New York’s hardcore and crossover communities, delivering high-voltage messages of brutal solidarity during the legendary Sunday matinees at CBGB alongside Agnostic Front and the Cro-Mags. Formed in the middle of the decade, the group left a lasting imprint on countless aggressive rock acts through their groundbreaking 1989 album Just Can't Hate Enough, which fused punk’s sharp edge with heavy metal’s weight. Internal shifts and evolving sounds led to a 1998 breakup, yet the members regrouped in 2004 for two comeback performances and, a decade later, delivered Standing Up for Falling Down—their first studio album in eighteen years.
Sheer Terror first assembled in December 1984. The original roster—vocalist Paul Bearer, guitarist Alan Blake, bassist Baron “Barry” Misuraca, and drummer Sam “Reid” Lohman—faced stiff competition in an overcrowded scene. While the CBGB matinees embraced them readily, broader recognition proved elusive; they appeared on the 1985 compilation One Big Crowd and issued only two cassette recordings—No Grounds for Pity in 1986 and Fall from Grace in 1987—before the lineup fractured. Bearer and Blake elected to continue, recruiting bassist Mark Neuman and drummer Jason Martin to steer the band toward a heavier sound that mirrored the prevailing direction within NYHC. Their contribution to the 1989 collection NYHC: Where the Wild Things Are opened a relationship with the fledgling Blackout! Records, which released the Live at CBGB 7" that same year and subsequently licensed Just Can't Hate Enough from Germany’s Starving Missile for a 1990 domestic issue. The album finally situated Sheer Terror among the scene’s principal acts, yet their unexpected cover of the Cure’s “Boys Don't Cry” estranged many longtime supporters and prompted Blake’s departure. Neuman assumed guitar duties while Mike “Chickie” Walter, previously of Ludachrist, joined on bass.
After further releases—1991’s Ugly and Proud and 1992’s Thanks fer Nuthin’—along with exhaustive tours across America and Europe and additional personnel turnover, the band continued to wrestle with financial hardship. By the mid-1990s, as NYHC was widely dismissed as passé, they devoted unusual care to the 1994 EP Old, New, Borrowed & Blue, produced a single promotional clip for the track “Broken,” and returned to the road in support. The effort secured a contract with major-label MCA, but the association tarnished their independent credibility and failed to translate 1995’s Love Songs for the Unloved—co-produced by Prong’s Tommy Victor—into mainstream success. Neuman and then-current drummer Pat Cronin soon exited, leaving Bearer to rely on temporary replacements until the group dissolved in 1998.
After years of silence and lingering tensions, Bearer, Neuman, Chickie, and Cronin surprisingly reunited in 2004 to perform two shows at CBGB, which were documented in the film Beaten by the Fists of God. Bearer assembled another configuration in 2010, and in 2014 Sheer Terror released their first new material in nearly twenty years with the aggressive Standing Up for Falling Down. Operating today as a five-piece—Bearer, guitarists Johnny Eggz and Gary Bennett, bassist Jason Çarter, and drummer Anthony Corallo—the band issued the Pall in the Family EP in 2018.
Sheer Terror first assembled in December 1984. The original roster—vocalist Paul Bearer, guitarist Alan Blake, bassist Baron “Barry” Misuraca, and drummer Sam “Reid” Lohman—faced stiff competition in an overcrowded scene. While the CBGB matinees embraced them readily, broader recognition proved elusive; they appeared on the 1985 compilation One Big Crowd and issued only two cassette recordings—No Grounds for Pity in 1986 and Fall from Grace in 1987—before the lineup fractured. Bearer and Blake elected to continue, recruiting bassist Mark Neuman and drummer Jason Martin to steer the band toward a heavier sound that mirrored the prevailing direction within NYHC. Their contribution to the 1989 collection NYHC: Where the Wild Things Are opened a relationship with the fledgling Blackout! Records, which released the Live at CBGB 7" that same year and subsequently licensed Just Can't Hate Enough from Germany’s Starving Missile for a 1990 domestic issue. The album finally situated Sheer Terror among the scene’s principal acts, yet their unexpected cover of the Cure’s “Boys Don't Cry” estranged many longtime supporters and prompted Blake’s departure. Neuman assumed guitar duties while Mike “Chickie” Walter, previously of Ludachrist, joined on bass.
After further releases—1991’s Ugly and Proud and 1992’s Thanks fer Nuthin’—along with exhaustive tours across America and Europe and additional personnel turnover, the band continued to wrestle with financial hardship. By the mid-1990s, as NYHC was widely dismissed as passé, they devoted unusual care to the 1994 EP Old, New, Borrowed & Blue, produced a single promotional clip for the track “Broken,” and returned to the road in support. The effort secured a contract with major-label MCA, but the association tarnished their independent credibility and failed to translate 1995’s Love Songs for the Unloved—co-produced by Prong’s Tommy Victor—into mainstream success. Neuman and then-current drummer Pat Cronin soon exited, leaving Bearer to rely on temporary replacements until the group dissolved in 1998.
After years of silence and lingering tensions, Bearer, Neuman, Chickie, and Cronin surprisingly reunited in 2004 to perform two shows at CBGB, which were documented in the film Beaten by the Fists of God. Bearer assembled another configuration in 2010, and in 2014 Sheer Terror released their first new material in nearly twenty years with the aggressive Standing Up for Falling Down. Operating today as a five-piece—Bearer, guitarists Johnny Eggz and Gary Bennett, bassist Jason Çarter, and drummer Anthony Corallo—the band issued the Pall in the Family EP in 2018.
Albums
Unheard Unloved
2023
Bulldog Edition
2000
Just Can't Hate Enough
1994
Old, New, Borrowed and Blue
1994
Thanks Fer Nuthin'
1992
Singles
Live
