Sucking Chest Wound was hatched out of the acid-drenched brains of PnrH and Jeff-o in the winter of 1982-83 in Waterloo, Canada. After many all-night listening sessions absorbing the likes of Throbbing Gristle, The Residents, Caberet Voltaire, 23 Skidoo etc., the two decided to form a band. The logical first step was to come up with a righteous name. PnrH – having served in the cadet corps of the Canadian Armed Forces – happened to have a military first-aid manual describing a particularly nasty form of bayonet injury: the Sucking Chest Wound.

The next step was to produce some music. Having no instruments or musical abilities presented a challenge. After some initial experiments with a 3-head cassette deck in a feedback loop,  Jeff-o purchased a Mattel Synsonic drum machine, and Pnrh dug up a guitar named Pokey and purchased a Mysto Dysto fuzz pedal. They then set out to recruit some additional members. The first incarnation of SCW consisted of Synsonic drum machine, Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer, guitar, bass and vocals. No recordings exist of this proto-version of SCW and only one live gig was ever performed, in the summer of 1983.

By this time Roba had joined the group, and would remain as a member of SCW until 1991.