metal

Biohazard

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Brooklyn crew who fused hardcore aggression with hip-hop cadence long before that was a formula — street-level heaviness with the accent left in.

Biohazard formed in Brooklyn in 1987, initially as a trio of bassist/vocalist Evan Seinfeld, guitarist Bobby Hambel and drummer Anthony Meo. Billy Graziadei joined soon after on guitar and vocals, and Danny Schuler replaced Meo before the first album, fixing the lineup that carried the band from 1988 to 1995. An early demo drew accusations of far-right sympathies that the band denied, later explaining it as a stunt aimed at winning over Carnivore's audience.

Both Seinfeld and Graziadei sang as well as playing, trading and stacking vocals over down-tuned riffs and half-time breakdowns. The band shared stages with Cro-Mags and Agnostic Front and built a following on New York's hardcore circuit before wider notice. Their self-titled 1990 debut, issued on Maze Records, dealt in Brooklyn gang life, drugs and street violence.

Their second album, Urban Discipline, released in 1992 on Roadrunner Records, brought them out of the hardcore circuit and onto a wider metal audience, and was followed by State of the World Address, produced by Ed Stasium and released through Warner Bros. after the band left Roadrunner.

The band's crossover instincts were made explicit by their collaboration with Onyx on a version of "Slam" and by a joint contribution to the Judgment Night soundtrack, which sold over two million copies. Tours through the early nineties put them in front of hardcore, hip-hop and metal crowds alike, opening for acts such as House of Pain and Fishbone, with Cypress Hill's Sen Dog guesting on the single "How It Is."

Biohazard have broken up and reformed more than once, including a 2008 reunion and a later hiatus. The classic lineup of Seinfeld, Graziadei, Hambel and Schuler reunited in 2022 and returned to performing in 2023, with Graziadei a constant presence throughout.

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