Biohazard Biography

Former members
Evan Seinfeld
Billy Graziadei
Danny Schuler
Scott Roberts
Anthony Meo
Bobby Hambel
Rob Echeverria
Leo Curley
Carmine Vincent


Biohazard was a band originally based out of Brooklyn, New York. They are acknowledged as one of the earliest bands to fuse hardcore punk and heavy metal with elements of hip hop

Origin Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genre(s) Heavy metal, Hardcore punk, Rapcore
Years active 1988–2006, 2008

Band history

Early years

The band formed in 1987 in Brooklyn. The original lineup consisted of bassist/vocalist Evan Seinfeld, guitarist Bobby Hambel, and drummer Anthony Meo. Guitarist/vocalist Billy Graziadei joined the band soon after. Their first demo tape, released in 1988, caused a stir with journalists who felt that the band's lyrics displayed certain fascist and white supremacist views, despite the fact that Seinfeld himself was Jewish. Accusations of racism in their music were strenuously denied by the band, but in later interviews, Seinfeld and Graziadei explained that it had all been a publicity stunt to win over the band Carnivore and their fans. Eventually, the songs in question were no longer played or even mentioned, and the band began preaching message of tolerance and anti-racism. After the release of their demo, Anthony Meo left the band and drummer Danny Schuler stepped in to replace him. A second demo tape followed in 1989.

While never really considering themselves a hardcore band, Biohazard often found themselves sharing stages with bands associated with the New York hardcore scene, such as the Cro-Mags and Agnostic Front. They also shared stages with New Jersey hardcore band Mucky Pup quite often and a friendship between the two bands developed. Mucky Pup became a strong supporter of Biohazard and often booked them as an opening act, but many of the clubs would refuse to let Biohazard play, thinking the shows would lead to violence. As a result, Mucky Pup would resort to sneaking them on stage to perform a few songs before their own set.

Maze Records

In 1990, Biohazard signed a recording contract with Maze Records. The band's self-titled debut album was poorly promoted by the label and sold over 40,000 copies. Subject-matter of the album was Brooklyn, gang-wars, drugs, and violence. The band went on their first European tour and, when they returned, realized that the problems they sang about on their first record were not limited to their Brooklyn hometown.

One year after the release of their debut album, Seinfeld and Graziadei contributed vocals to the song "Three Dead Gophers" from Mucky Pup's third album, Now. The album was released on Roadrunner Records, who would soon release Biohazard's second album.

Roadrunner Records

In 1992, Biohazard signed with Roadrunner Records and released Urban Discipline, which gave the band national and worldwide attention in both the heavy metal and hardcore communities. The video for the song "Punishment" became the most played video in the history of MTV's Headbanger's Ball, and the album sold over 1,000,000 copies. The band also began opening for larger acts such as House of Pain, Sick Of It All, Fishbone, and Kyuss.

In the meantime, several former members of Mucky Pup had formed the band Dog Eat Dog. Biohazard had continued their friendship with these members and began to share the stage with Dog Eat Dog. While touring Europe, Graziadei gave a Dog Eat Dog demo tape to a Roadracer Records representative. At the time, Roadracer was the European sister label to Roadrunner Records. The tape was sent back to the New York office of Roadrunner Records who then sent representatives to several Dog Eat Dog shows. As a result, Dog Eat Dog signed their first record deal with the label.

In 1993, the hardcore rap group Onyx recorded an alternate "Bionyx" version of their hit single "Slam" with Biohazard as their backup band. This led to a collaboration for the title track of the Judgment Night soundtrack. The soundtrack would go on to sell over 2,000,000 copies in the United States.

Warner Bros.

Months later, the band left Roadrunner Records in order to sign with Warner Brothers Records Inc. and released their third studio LP, State of the World Address. The album was produced by Ed Stasium in Los Angeles and contained the single "How It Is" featuring Sen-Dog from Cypress Hill, for which a video was also shot. During their 1994 tour, the band made an appearance on the second stage at the Monsters of Rock festival held at Castle Donington. State of the World Address went on to sell over 1,000,000 copies, and Rolling Stone magazine selected the Biohazard logo as the best logo of the year. This was the last Biohazard album with Bobby Hambel, who left due to differences with the rest of the band. Hambel spent time in White Devil, also featuring members of the Cro-Mags, before seemingly leaving the music business entirely.

The band recorded their fourth studio album, Mata Leao, as a three piece in 1996. It was produced with the help of Dave Jerden. For the 1996 Mata Leao Tour, the band hired former Helmet guitarist Rob Echeverria. Also in 1996, Biohazard played on the Ozzfest mainstage alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Slayer, Danzig, Fear Factory, and Sepultura.

While touring Europe in support of the Mata Leao album, the band recorded their Hamburg, Germany, show for their first live album, No Holds Barred (Live in Europe), which was released in 1997 through their former label, Roadrunner Records.

In 1998, Seinfeld began an acting career playing Jaz Hoyt on HBO's award winning series Oz. The character was introduced in the second season and appeared throughout the series' sixth and final season.

Mercury Records

The band signed to Mercury Records and released their fifth studio album, New World Disorder, in 1999, once again with Ed Stasium as a producer. The relationship with Mercury Records soured quickly; the band felt betrayed and misunderstood by their label and as a result severed their ties with the label amidst the merger of Mercury Records, Island Records, Def Jam Records, and Polygram into the Universal Music Group.

Independent again

In 2000, the band continued to tour Europe and Japan, without the support of a record label or management. In 2001, the band released a compilation album titled Tales From The B-Side. The album consisted of various B-sides and remixes from various eras in the band's recording history. The album was released by the Phantom Sound & Vision label. After the release of Tales From The B-Side, Rob Echeverria resigned from the band in order to get married. Leo Curley, of Outline and All Means Necessary, was hired as his replacement.

SPV/Sanctuary Records

In the same year, Biohazard signed two new record deals with SPV/Steamhammer in Europe and Sanctuary Records for the remainder of the world. Despite the new record deals, the band took some personal time in order to work on other projects.

Graziadei briefly formed a trip hop project with Jenifer Bair of the Ohio band Hilo. After writing and recording approximately 20 songs for the project, named Blu, Bair relocated to Los Angeles, California to continue an art career and the project dissolved. Graziadei also began work on a book, Tales From The Hardside. Schuler used his downtime to join New York band Among Thieves as a replacement drummer for the departing Will Shepler.

Graziadei and Schuler also collaborated in transforming the band's rehearsal Brooklyn studio into a digital recording studio, known as Rat Piss Studios. Re-investing into the band, Graziadei and Schuler honed their engineering and productions skills while recording and producing local acts and new Biohazard demos. The band then undertook the process of writing, recording, and producing their own music.

Their studio work led to the band's first sixth studio album, Uncivilization, released in September 2001. The album features many guest appearances by members of bands such as Agnostic Front, Hatebreed, Pantera, Slipknot, Sepultura, Cypress Hill, Skarhead, and Type O Negative. Shortly after the release of Uncivilization, Leo Curley left the band to focus on writing his own music. He was replaced by former Nucleus member Carmine Vincent, who had previously toured with Biohazard as part of their road crew.

In 2002, Seinfeld became engaged to porn star Tera Patrick, who had never heard of Seinfeld until she saw one of his nude scenes on Oz. After making several phone calls, Patrick was able to contact Seinfeld, who had never heard of her either, and the two began dating.

Unfortunately, the band had to cancel scheduled European festival dates when Carmine Vincent underwent major surgery. The band did manage to find a temporary guitarist, Scott Roberts of the Cro-Mags, in time to join the Eastpak Resistance Tour with Agnostic Front, Hatebreed, Discipline, Death Threat, and Born From Pain. Also participating in the tour was All Boro Kings, a band consisting of old friends from both Mucky Pup and Dog Eat Dog.

Biohazard completed their seventh studio album in seventeen days; Kill Or Be Killed was released in 2003. Originally titled Never Forget, Never Forgive, the band made a last-minute decision to change the name and artwork of the album. While touring North America with Kittie, Brand New Sin and Eighteen Visions, Biohazard announced that Roberts would remain as their permanent guitarist. The tour was curtailed when it was announced that Seinfeld had fallen ill.

With more downtime due to Seinfeld's illness, Graziadei and Schuler collaborated to mix Life of Agony's live comeback album, River Runs Again: Live 2003. Once Seinfeld was healthy again, the band toured Japan and North America, headlining over bands such as Hatebreed, Agnostic Front, Throwdown, and Full Blown Chaos.

Once home, Seinfeld began recording and circulating demos for his own trip hop project named Triplesicks. For a brief time, Graziadei and his wife moved to Brazil where their daughter was born. While there, Graziadei struck up a friendship with drummer Fernandao Schafer. After jamming together in the studio, Schafer formed the band Ink which Graziadei would eventually join. It wasn't long before Ink was renamed Endrah and an EP titled DEMONstration was released. Once Graziadei returned to New York, the logistical problems of traveling back and forth caused Graziadei to quit Endrah.

In early 2004, Graziadei, Schuler, and Roberts teamed up with gabber DJ Rob Gee, DJ Starscream (aka Sid Wilson of Slipknot), Jeff Anthony, and Keith Rooney, both of Gutwrench, to form Ampt. The band combined gabber music with hardcore and heavy metal. After writing several songs and putting together a live band, Graziadei and Schuler left the project in order to continue with Biohazard. Ampt has gone through several additional lineup changes since.

Also in 2004, Seinfeld, now residing in Los Angeles, California, married his fiance of two years, Tera Patrick. Using the alias Spyder Jones, Seinfeld has since starred with Patrick in several adult movies, including Desperate and Reign of Tera, which he also directed.

By the end of 2004, the band had begun recording its eighth studio album, Means To An End. Unfortunately, the completed album was lost in a studio disaster, forcing the band to completely re-record the album, which was finally released in August 2005.

The end of Biohazard

In the meantime, Graziadei had formed another new band with former members of Kittie and The Groovenics. Originally named Rodek, the band eventually changed their name to Suicide City. In October 2005, Graziadei announced that Means To An End had been the final Biohazard album and that he would continue playing with Suicide City as his main focus. One month later, on the Biohazard website, it was announced that there would in fact be a 2006 Biohazard tour.

On December 15th, Seinfeld and Graziadei participated with the Roadrunner United conglomerate at the Nokia Theater in New York for an all-star event. The show opened with Biohazard's "Punishment," performed by Seinfeld, Graziadei, Sepultura's Andreas Kisser, former Fear Factory member Dino Cazares, and Slipknot's Joey Jordison.

In January 2006, Danny Schuler announced his resignation from Biohazard and the formation of Bloodclot with singer Jon Joseph of the Cro-Mags and guitarist Scott Roberts and bassist Craig Setari of Sick of it All. As a result of Schuler's resignation, Roberts announced that he would also be leaving the band to focus on Bloodclot with Schuler. That same month, Graziadei announced that Biohazard would not go on a farewell tour after all [1]. A Biohazard DVD was released soon after.

Graziadei and Schuler have since relocated their recording studio to South Amboy, New Jersey and have renamed it Underground Sound Studios. The studio has undergone renovations in order to include a live room with 20 foot ceilings and 4,000 square feet of studio space.

In February 2006, Seinfeld participated in the filming of SuperGroup, a VH-1 reality television series also starring Ted Nugent, Scott Ian of Anthrax, Sebastian Bach and Jason Bonham of Bonham, UFO, and Foreigner as a band named Damnocracy. The show debuted on May 21, 2006. Seinfeld continues to work with his wife, Tera Patrick, in adult entertainment. In 2005, they launched the Tera Patrick Agency with the goal of representing talent in both the adult and mainstream entertainment business.

In March 2007, Evan Seinfeld debuted his new band, The Spyderz, as an opening act for a Buckcherry performance. The band was originally named White Line Fever, until it was discovered that a UK band already owned the name. The Spyderz also features guitarist John Monte, formerly of Ministry and M.O.D..

Reunion

In January 2008, the lineup of Evan Seinfeld, Billy Graziadei, Danny Schuler and Bobby Hambel made the announcement that rehearsals had begun for a 2008 summer tour to commemorate the band's 20th anniversary.They toured Australia and New Zealand in April with Chimaira, Throwdown, Bloodsimple and headliners Korn to celebrate their newly declared reunion.

Discography

1. Demo (1988)
2. Demo (1989)
3. Biohazard (1990)
4. Urban Discipline (1992)
5. State of the World Address (1994)
6. Mata Leao (1996)
7. No Holds Barred (Live in Europe) (1997)
8. New World Disorder (1999)
9. Tales From The B-Side (2001)
10. Uncivilization (2001)
11. Kill Or Be Killed (2003)
12. Means To An End (2005)

Wikipedia

BIOHAZARD was founded in 1988 in bloody district of NYC Brooklyn. The original lineup consisted of guitarist/vocalist Billy Graziadei, bassist/vocalist Evan Seinfeld, guitarist Bobby Hambel, and drummer Danny Schuler. They formed Biohazard for the purpose of expressing political viewpoints and discussing problems facing urban youth, which all of the members had experience dealing with themselves. They think all people should be 'Down For Life' wich means that they should be loyal to their friends and family, 'cause they're the only ones to back you up. There is BIO fanclub called Down For Life (DFL). It unites the most hardcore Biofans(called DFLers) around the world.

Biohazard began opening for local hardcore and thrash bands and gradually built a large following through their outraged sense of injustice, political awareness, and constant touring. Inspired by (but not limited to): Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Run DMC, Bad brains, Judas Priest, Cro-Mags, Public Enemy, The Ramones, Agnostic Front, the band set out to create a musical hybrid that would transcend easy categorization and not be bound by limitation. Biohazard was one of the first bands to mix heavy metal and hardcore with elements of hip-hop and rap.

In 1990 they signed their first label at a little record-company which is called Maze Records, Biohazard also released their first LP there, which is published under the name "Biohazard". It sold over 40.000 copies, this bad quantity was based on poor promotion. This album was all about Brooklyn, the gang-wars, drugs, violence, etc. After releasing their debut in 1990, Biohazard set out on their path for world domination. Returning from their first European tour, they realized that the problems they sang about on their first record were not limited to their Brooklyn hometown.

After a long time of fighting about a good record label, Biohazard finally got it's contract with Roadrunner Records. In 1992, the band released the classic URBAN DISCIPLINE, which went on to sell over 1,000,000 copies worldwide. Consequently, Biohazard became support of bigger acts such as House Of Pain, Sick Of It All, Fishbone and Kyuss. Spawning from this record was the video for the track "Punishment" which was the most played video in the history of MTV's Headbanger's Ball and is still regarded as one of the most influential records of the nineties.

In 1993, the hard-core rap group Onyx recorded an alternate version of their hit single "Slam" with Biohazard backing them up. This led to both bands collaborating on the title song for the groundbreaking Judgement Night soundtrack, which sold over 2,000,000 copies in the US. In the same year they changed to Warner Brothers Records Inc. and published their third and most successful studio LP "State Of The World Address". It was produced in winter`94 in Los Angeles with Ed Stasium. In 1994 Biohazard again was touring the entire planet and drawing strength from their loyal fans. SOTWA went on to sell over 1,000,000 copies and spawned the hit single and video "How It Is" featuring Sen-Dog from Cypress Hill. This album was up to now the most controversial Biohazard LP. It criticized the sharp and clear thinking of the band. After this little conflict the Rolling Stone Magazine selected the Biohazard logo for the best logo of the year. The third LP also was the last one for Bobby, who left the band a few times later.

Biohazard went on to release the fourth album called Mata Leao two years later. It was produced for the second time at Warner Brothers with the help of Dave Jerden. Biohazard recorded it with only three members: Evan, Billy, Danny. Without a lead guitarist, but you can hear that it is a great piece of work. The title means, "to kill the lion" and, in a sense, they discovered that their ambitions would lead them to do just that. By facing their fears head on, defeating their inner demons and looking around the globe for answers, the band found the truth inside themselves.

Battling drug and alcohol abuse, inter-band strife, record labels folding, merging and abandoning them for more pop flavors, Biohazard staggered like a champion fighter, but never went down. During these difficult years, Biohazard succeeded in sticking it out together. For the Mata Leao Tour in 1996, the band needed a talented lead guitarist, so they choosed the ex-Helmet guitarist Rob Echeverria. With the assistance of Rob they published their first live record "No Holds Barred" in 1997. The whole album was recorded in Hamburg with the helping hands of Roadrunner Records.

After that the band signed to Mercury Records and released the critically acclaimed the fifth record called New World Disorder in 1999. Everything was done again with the help of Ed Stasium, but this time in New York City. In the same year, Biohazard toured for "New World Disorder" among other things in Europe, for example at Rock am Ring / Rock im Park or at the Bizarre festival in Cologne. Feeling betrayed and misunderstood by their label, the band left Mercury amidst the mass artist genocide that occurred with the merger of Mercury, Island, Def Jam and Polygram into Universal. In 2000, operating on their survival instincts, the band re-grouped and launched a highly successful European/Japan tour with no record label or managerial support.

After traveling all over the world, they earned a longer break to began doing the work on the sixth record "Tales From The B-Sides". The LP is full of the coolest b-side and remix shit. A few month ago, Rob has left the band, he wants to settle down and get married. Fortunately the band found a new lead guitarist, his name is Leo Curley. In the meantime Biohazard signed a new record deal with SPV/Steamhammer for Europe and Sanctuary for the rest of the world. During the bands' downtime, the high visibility of being hard-core legends connected Evan with Tom Fontana landing him a high profile starring role portraying the prison convict "Jaz Hoyt" on HBO's critically acclaimed and award winning hit series "OZ".

Billy used his music skills in a trip-hop “massive attackish” project called BLU. The band consists of two members: Billy and a vocalist Jeni Bair. The bands' hard work had earned respect has also brought Billy into the journalism world. Currently working on a collection of "Tales from the Hardside" for later release, you can find some of these tales in magazines like Metal Hammer and FAQ (to name a few) where he has his own monthly column. Danny also undertook some activities outside Biohazard. He joined New York's band called Among Thieves as a replacement for Will Shepler (ex-Agnostic Front/Madball).

Also during this time, Billy and Danny transformed the bands infamous rehearsal studio/hangout in downtown Brooklyn into a world class digital recording studio now know as Rat Piss Studios. Re-investing into the band, Billy and Danny honed their engineering and productions skills while recording/producing local acts and new Biohazard demos. Armed with a truckload of new music, the band undertook the difficult process of writing, recording and producing their own music. In september of 2001 they released their sixth studio LP (except NHB & Tales From The B-Side) “Uncivilization”. The album features guests the likes of Roger Miret (Agnostic Front), Jamie Jasta of Hatebreed, Phil Anselmo (Pantera), Corey from Slipknot and also mate from Skarhead, Lord Ezec.

Unfortunately some months after releasing of “Uncivilization” Biohazard parted ways with Leo Curley. Curley's departure was caused by his desire to write his own material, a prospect which proved virtually impossible in an act that has been composing songs as a three-piece since Biohazard's split with original guitarist Bobby Hambel in the mid-1990s. The split with Leo was mutual, no bad feelings. Biohazard have replaced Leo with former Nucleus axeman Carmine Vincent. Vincent is no stranger to the Biohazard camp, having previously traveled with the group as a roadie in addition to having supported Biohazard as the bassist/vocalist for NUCLEUS during a tour of Europe in late 2000. Brand new Biohazard album was recorded with Carmine and entitled "Kill Or Be Killed" (2003) and is the most brutal and heaviest to date.

In 2005, Biohazard embarked on what has become their final album, Means to an End. With the success of their studio work, Billy and Danny opened up the Underground Sound Studios in NJ, in exchange for lower overhead and more space, they left Rat Piss Studios behind. After focusing on their earlier energy that the members found as definative Biohazard, disaster struck the band. While mixing the album, a horrible mishap caused the loss of the album (recorded in digital audio as most recordings these days are). After regrouping, Graziadei and Schuler rekindled their passion and rejoined the fight to finish this soon to be classic Biohazard album: Means to an End.

Billy is currently 100% focused on his new band Suicide City, while at home he works in the successful Underground Sound Studios that he and Danny Schuler have been building up over the years! Danny Schuler is currently working on a project called Bloodclot with Biohazard guitar player Scott Roberts and former Cromag's singer, John Bloodclot.

Biohazard