Early history (1985–1988)

In 1985, after a brief stint in a band called Majesty, Oscar Garcia began searching around the Los Angeles area for musicians he could form a band with which he could front as both a vocalist and guitarist.^[4] Garcia first met guitarist Jesse Pintado, and after helping each other with their guitar skills, the two formed a thrash metal band known as Unknown Death.^[4][5] Afterwards, Garcia and Pintado recruited bassist Alfred "Garvey" Estrada and a drummer mononymously known as "Fish".^[6]

Initially taking inspiration from thrash metal acts such as Slayer and Celtic Frost,^[4] Garcia and Pintado would soon decide to take Unknown Death in a faster direction, after Pintado received a demo tape featuring what would become the A-side to Napalm Death's Scum (1987).^[7] Garcia recalled: "I remember one day, [Pintado] said, 'Check this out'. And when I listened to it for the first time, I called him and said, 'That's it, that's the way I wanna play'."^[7] Fish was unable to play to the speeds that Garcia and Pintado wanted, and he soon left the band.^[7] Upon the recommendation of a friend, drummer Pete Sandoval auditioned for Unknown Death and was instantly hired. "The first beat that [Sandoval] played was a superfast beat, and when we heard that, Jesse and I looked at each other and we looked at Pete, and we were like, 'Hey man, you wanna join this band?' And he said, 'You guys haven't seen me play.' And I said, 'We've heard enough'."^[8] Sandoval's drumming style complimented Unknown Death's older songs, and Garcia felt that "everything just started to click" musically when he joined the band.^[4][5] Unknown Death soon changed their name to Decomposed, and then to Terrorizer, after a song of the same name by Master.^[4][5]

Having attainted a stable line-up, Terrorizer began playing around the Los Angeles area, performing their first show at the Hoover Recreation Centre on March 21, 1987.^[5] The band released four rehearsal/demo tapes during 1987 that were circulated throughout the underground tape-trading scene.^{[5][N 1]} Terrorizer were limited to performing in small venues or at backyard parties for most of their initial existence,^[10] and struggled to attract record label interest due to the speed and intensity of their music, which made them unappealing to both the heavy metal and punk rock audiences of the Los Angeles area.^[11] In the summer of 1988, with both interest in and activity within Terrorizer waning, Sandoval was presented with the opportunity to join the Florida-based death metal band Morbid Angel by the band's bassist, David Vincent.^{[12][13][N 2]} He would subsequently announce to the other members of Terrorizer during a band rehearsal with new bassist Carlos Reveles (who Garcia had played with back in Majesty) that he was leaving to join Morbid Angel, resulting in their disbandment.^[14] Garcia recalled of Sandoval's departure: "At the time I thought we [Terrorizer] were just about ready to do an album. Then one day out of the blue at a practice, Pete just busted out saying that he was leaving the band and that he was moving out of state. And that was pretty much it for us then. It was like we never had a chance."^[14]

World Downfall and disbandment (1989–2004)

In early 1989, whilst he was in England delivering the master tapes of Morbid Angel's debut album Altars of Madness to the offices of Earache Records, David Vincent discussed Terrorizer with the label's founder, Digby Pearson.^[15][16] Pearson told Vincent that Terrorizer had been signed to Earache before Morbid Angel were, but that he had struggled to get the band to record an album due to its members being based in differing locations.^[17] Vincent subsequently offered to regroup Terrorizer to record an album, should Earache be interested in releasing one.^[15][17]

In April 1989, Garcia and Pintado travelled to Tampa, Florida, where both Vincent and Sandoval were based, to record Terrorizer's debut album World Downfall.^[5] After two weeks of "[rehearsing] all the songs like crazy" to make them sound as tight as they could be (according to Vincent),^[17] Terrorizer recorded and mixed the album in the space of three days at Morrisound Recording with engineer Scott Burns.^[5][17][18] Because Terrorizer did not have a bassist at the time and because Pintado and Garcia did not have any bass equipment, Vincent ended up playing bass on the album.^[5][18] Although he is credited as both the producer of World Downfall and Terrorizer's bassist in the album's liner notes,^[19] Vincent later claimed that he "just played on the record" and was not an official member of the band (at that point).^[17]

World Downfall was released via Earache on November 13, 1989.^[20] Shortly before the album's release, Pintado left Terrorizer to join Napalm Death, before the start of the band's Grindcrusher Tour in November 1989.^[21] With Vincent and Sandoval refocusing their attention on Morbid Angel—who were also participating in the Grindcrusher Tour as a supporting act (along with Carcass and Bolt Thrower)—Terrorizer disbanded for a second time.^[21][22] Garcia subsequently returned to his other band, Nausea.^[23] In the 2018 documentary film Slave to the Grind: A Film About Grindcore, Sandoval said of Terrorizer's disbandment:

"There was not a lot of interest in Terrorizer, and plus, these other bands, for us, were big bands, y'know. Morbid Angel, they had like, a beginning of a history, you know what I mean? So it was something cool, nice for me to join. And then Napalm Death, another big band... so it was what it was supposed to be, man."^[24]

World Downfall has retrospectively been seen as one of the classics of early grindcore.^[25] Morbid Angel would later incorporate the album track "Dead Shall Rise" into their setlists during their tours in support of Blessed Are the Sick (1991), which Vincent said the band were happy to do as "half of Morbid Angel had been in Terrorizer".^[22] Although Terrorizer were still under contract for another album with Earache, attempts to make another album with the World Downfall line-up of the band were unsuccessful due to its members' conflicting schedules.^[5][26] Garcia claims not to have talked to Sandoval since Terrorizer's disbandment.^[27]

Later history and albums. disbandment and reformation (2005–2023)

In 2005, after leaving Napalm Death, Pintado agreed to reform Terrorizer with Sandoval to release another album, Darker Days Ahead, through Century Media Records in August 2006. Garcia declined to join the reunion due to creative differences with Pintado, who wanted him to leave Nausea—he was subsequently replaced by Anthony Rezhawk.^[23][28] Tony Norman also joined the band on guitar and bass; Pintado had been recording and playing shows with Rezhawk's band Resistant Culture and asked him to join Terrorizer. Pintado would die five days after the album's release due to liver failure.^[29][30]

In 2009, Terrorizer released a new demo track, "Hordes of Zombies", on its MySpace page.^[31] In June 2011, Terrorizer signed to Season of Mist, and released its third album, Hordes of Zombies, on February 28, 2012.^[32] Resistant Culture guitarist Katina Culture replaced Pintado and David Vincent rejoined on bass.^[33]

In November 2012, Sandoval announced that Terrorizer started writing new material for their next album.^[34] The fourth album Caustic Attack was released in 2018 under The End Records.^[35]

On August 9, 2021, Earache Records announced a new worldwide record deal with Terrorizer, as well as revealing that a new album was in the works.^[36]

On January 22, 2023, Sandoval announced the split of Terrorizer and would shift his attention to his other band I Am Morbid.^[37] However, on August 12, Sandoval reformed Terrorizer with Vincent, alongside former Vital Remains vocalist Brian Werner and guitarist Richie Brown.^[38][39]

Timeline