Biohazard is a New York hardcore metal band, with hip-hop influenced lyric styles. They formed in 1988 in Brooklyn. The original lineup consisted of guitarist/vocalist Billy Graziadei, bassist/vocalist Evan Seinfeld, guitarist Bobby Hambel, and drummer Danny Schuler.
As the band formed in what then was a very tough and tense atmosphere in Brooklyn, they wrote equally intense music and were followed by the stereotypical hardcore/metal toughguy crowd. Though later dropping the idea, the band initially wrote songs that were blatantly racist. Later in interviews Billy and Evan (who is, ironically, Jewish) explained that few Brooklynites seemed agitated at the idea, and that it was a kind of publicity stunt to win over the band Carnivore and their fans. The songs appeared on a 1988 demo, but are no longer played, or even mentioned. The band has long since preached an unbreaking message of tolerance and anti-racism.
The band's first proper release was an eponymous 1990 album. Thirteen songs long (a sort of in-joke with Biohazard's fans pokes fun of the band's tendency to have very long tracklistings), the album quickly gained the band massive attention in New York.
It was the band's signing to Roadrunner Records and the release of 1992's Urban Discipline that gave the band nationwide (and indeed worldwide) attention in metal and hardcore circles. Videos for "Shades of Grey" and "Punishment" received rotation on MTV's Headbanger's Ball, and the band was able to tour the globe in support of the album. Next came 1994's State of the World Address, changing little from the musical formula that made them famous.
After a couple of rhythm guitar changes, the band recorded Mata Leao as a trio. The album signaled a slight simplification of the band's style to a sort of rap core sound, a style that stayed intact into the band's 1999 release New World Disorder as well as 2001's Uncivilization. Around this time Seinfeld found minor fame as an actor, playing one of a gang of tough prisoners in the HBO prison drama Oz.
