Biohazard

Biohazard is an American heavy metal band formed in 1988 in Brooklyn, New York. The band is one of the earliest to fuse hardcore punk and heavy metal with hip hop.

Early songs featured controversial lyrics like “American Nazi pride” and “Master race in unity” that the band later wrote off as “metaphoric lyrics” intended “to shock, be vague and get your attention” and to also capitalize on the ‘somewhat racist crowd’ that fellow Brooklyn metal band Carnivore attracted in the mid 80s.

By the time their first full length album was released by Maze Records, Biohazard was instead embracing more socially conscious themes like injustice, blue collar pride, anti-racism and horror stories of drug use. That self-titled album sold 40,000 copies, attracting Roadrunner Records. But the band later inked a deal with the even larger Warner Brothers Records, before the release of their next album Urban Discipline. It was however still released on Roadrunner in late 1992 at the band’s request.

The lead single “Punishment” went into heavy rotation on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball as the band toured with Exploited, Kreator and Type O Negative. Biohazard also found success in 1993 collaborating twice with rap group Onyx on a remake of that group’s top 5 hit “Slam” and the title track of the film Judgement Night. In January 1994, more than a year after its release, Urban Disciplne appeared on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart, selling 135,000 copies in its first two years.

Warner then strategically marketed the band to the media, record stores and the general public weeks in advance of releasing what would become their most commercially successful album State Of The World Address. Soon after its release, Biohazard hit the road with Pantera, then performed at Dynamo Festival in 1995. The album sold over a million copies, but they were unable to match that success with their next album for Warner Mata Leao, which led to the end of that business relationship. The band performed on the main stage of Ozzfest ‘96 alongside Ozzy, Slayer and Sepultura. In 1998, bassist Evan Seinfeld began appearing in the popular HBO show Oz as the character Jaz Hoyt.

Biohazard signed with Mercury Records shortly before Seagrams' infamous 1998 acquisition (and consolidation) of the Mercury, Island, Geffen, A&M and Interscope record labels. When the band’s 1999 album New World Disorder peaked lower than Mata Leao, Biohazard and Mercury parted ways. Over the next seven years, the band struggled with membership changes, health issues, mishaps and conflicting side projects. During those years, Biohazard released three more albums that all found even less success than the previous two. In 2006, the band planned a farewell tour that was later canceled.

In 2008, the ‘classic lineup’ of Biohazard reunited and toured internationally over the next three years with Korn, Chimaria and Agnostic Front until parting ways with Seinfeld, dropping Reborn In Defiance before his departure. Since then the band has continued to perform around the world, often at overseas music festivals like Wacken, Altavoz, Rebellion, Soundwave, Download – and more appearances at Dynamo as recently as 2019.