Reunited BIOHAZARD announce new album due in 2025
First band to sign to Frontiers Label Group's new imprint, BLKIIBLK
15-10-2024
Frontiers Label Group has announced the launch of its new imprint, BLKIIBLK, dedicated to pushing the boundaries of heavy music, along with the signing of legendary and groundbreaking metal/hardcore band BIOHAZARD as its first act. BIOHAZARD is set to release a highly anticipated new album in 2025, the band’s first full-length release in over a decade.
BLKIIBLK aims to bring a fresh perspective to the heavy music scene by focusing on innovative and boundary-pushing artists. With a mission to support and elevate the genre, the new imprint is set to become a powerhouse in the music industry, showcasing talent that is both pioneering and influential.
Serafino Perugino, president of the label, expressed his enthusiasm: “We are thrilled to launch BLKIIBLK with BIOHAZARD as our flagship artist. BIOHAZARD‘s influence and pioneering spirit perfectly align with our vision for BLKIIBLK. We look forward to supporting them as they continue to break new ground.”
BIOHAZARD stated: “When we reformed last year, the reaction to our first world tour in over a decade energized and inspired us to create new BIOHAZARD music that pays respect to the old school while creating something new and exciting for us and our fans. If ever a time was right for new BIOHAZARD, it’s now, and we’re excited to announce our partnership with BLKIIBLK. We can’t wait to release this beast of a record in 2025!”
Paul Gargano, co-manager of BIOHAZARD, added: “The chemistry in BIOHAZARD is electric and undeniable, and the band is stronger than they’ve ever been. By partnering with BLKIIBLK, we’ve found a label as motivated as the band to propel BIOHAZARD to their greatest heights.”
Andy Gould, co-manager of the band, continues: “Having worked with PANTERA and ROB ZOMBIE, looking after BIOHAZARD was a no-brainer. Seeing the excitement of the band being back together was only matched by the enthusiasm of BLKIIBLK. I think the marriage between the label and band can only make BIOHAZARD bigger than they have ever been.”
Tom Lipsky, head of A&R of North America for Frontiers Label Group, commented on the new signing: “BIOHAZARD creating new music is a metal event. Tour performances have been epic and now they are ready to raise hell in the studio. I am excited to work with them once again and to bring them to BLKIIBLK Records. I cannot wait to unleash their new music in the coming year!”
In a recent interview with France’s Loud TV, BIOHAZARD bassist/vocalist Evan Seinfeld confirmed that he and his bandmates were “making a new album”. Evan said: “I’m really excited about it. I’m writing a lot of lyrics right now, working on some music. All the guys are writing. It’s exciting.”
Evan previously discussed BIOHAZARD‘s plans for new music this past April in an interview with El Planeta Del Rock. At the time, he said: “We’re working on our process on a couple of really cool songs, and when something is special enough and we are excited about it, I imagine we’ll release a single before release an album, but there’s a full-length album in the works. That’s the mission… We wanna go into the studio and really lock ourselves down, like we used to do in the ’90s, and spend some time really making a strong album. For us, it’s not about one song, one song. Making an album is still something that we care about.”
He continued: “I know it’s not the popular way of doing things. How many people buy new albums by artists and listen to the whole album from beginning to end? Young people don’t really ingest music like that so much. But BIOHAZARD is about authenticity. We do what we do, and we’re gonna make the best album we can make in 2024.”
In March, Evan explained to Battleline Podcast how the classic lineup of BIOHAZARD managed to come back together last year for a series of festival appearances and headlining shows. He said: “I left the band in 2012, and the other guys toured around(with a replacement bassist/vocalist for like about two years, three years after that, but that was 10 years ago. They hadn’t played together in 10 years, and nobody was really talking to anybody. And it wasn’t something that I was even thinking about. I was going through the airport and my drummer, Danny (Schuler), who I’ve known since I’m 12 years old, his brother, Richie Schuler, from East 94th Street in Canarsie (Brooklyn), who was also a drummer, who also I used to play with, I hear his voice, ‘Yo, Evan.’ I turn around. It’s Richie Schuler, Danny‘s brother. I’m in the airport changing planes somewhere, coming back from Los Angeles to Tulum, to Mexico. And I love Richie. We started talking.”
He continued: “It’s one of those things like… I was so living in my ego that I was attached to a bunch of resentment about a bunch of things that were a bunch of stories that I made up in my head about thinking how other people should react to things…. I didn’t even remember anymore what the real reason was the band wasn’t together anymore. But I ran into Richie, and he said, ‘My brother would love to hear from you.’ And I thought to myself, ‘We were like best of friends, all of us at one time, and my life’s a lot different now.’ And I picked up the phone and called Danny, and we just started talking. It wasn’t about putting the band back together. I wanted to reconnect with my brothers.
“If I hadn’t been working on myself and learning that resentment only hurts you, only hurts me… If I got a beef with you, you don’t necessarily know it. I’m carrying it around like a boulder in my backpack, weighing me down.
“A band is hard — it’s a bunch of egomaniacs with low self-esteem. It’s a bunch of guys who are fighting to get to the top together and fighting with each other for every inch of creativity, input of stardom, of fame, of contribution, of acknowledgement. People wanna be seen, people wanna be acknowledged, and when you’re doing it in a group setting, not everybody gets the same out of it. Everybody might put in the same. And it’s complicated, but right about the time I ran into Billy (Graziadei, guitar/vocals) and I got on the phone with Bobby (Hambel, guitar. I actually talked to Bobby first during the pandemic. He called me out of the blue and we had a really cool conversation, but there was no intention behind it. And somebody started a rumor that we were putting the band back together because people had seen us talking. And next thing I know, I run into Andy Gould and Paul Gargano, the band’s managers… Andy used to manage Rob Zombie for 25, 27 years, and he used to manage LINKIN PARK — big bands. PANTERA he worked on. And Andy said, ‘There’s this incredible opportunity right now for an iconic metal band with all its original members, that everybody’s really good shape and got their chops up. You guys can really make some impact on the scene.'”
Seinfeld added: “We got together in a room, we broke some bread, we had a rehearsal. It sounded incredible. It was revitalized. It needed to go away for 10 years for everyone to get rejuvenated and excited about it. The fans are hungry. We just did a huge European tour, and if you look at my Instagram, there’s a shot from this festival in Poland with 600,000 people. To stand on a stage in front of that many people and have them like chanting or jumping, it’s another level of experience. I don’t know that I ever appreciated it… I now have a huge amount of appreciation for everything I do. I have gratitude and a positive mindset. It doesn’t matter if I’m sitting in my house or if I’m on a big stage, I tend to appreciate everything more, and that’s a gift, man.”
The first reunion gig from Graziadei, Hambel, drummer Schuler and Seinfeld took place on May 26, 2023 at the Milwaukee Metal Fest at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In August 2023, BIOHAZARD confirmed that it was working on material for a new studio album.
“The inspiration’s coming from these shows,” Bobby told Le Coin Metal in an interview. “Being back together, celebrating and doing all these shows, it’s great. We’re having a good time, but now we’re getting the vibe from the crowd and we’re feeling it, and it’s getting in our bones. We’re getting that hunger and the ideas are starting to come out off of these shows.”
Added Billy: “For me, it’s kind of cool because the other reason I did (my solo project) BILLYBIO is because there was no BIOHAZARD, and the songs that I would’ve been showing these guys just ended up BILLYBIO songs. So being back with these guys is, like… It’s cool to have another outlet for my music.”
In 2022, Graziadei said in an interview that there had been “talk” about putting BIOHAZARD back together.
The group, which is acknowledged as one of the earliest outfits to fuse hardcore punk and heavy metal with elements of hip-hop, had been out of the public eye since Scott Roberts left the band more than eight years ago.
Roberts, who played guitar on BIOHAZARD‘s 2005 album “Means To An End”, rejoined the group in June 2011 as the replacement for Seinfeld. Scott fronted BIOHAZARD for nearly five years before exiting the band in February 2016.
In an August 2020 interview with the “Aftershocks” podcast, Roberts said that he left BIOHAZARD because he “wasn’t happy” anymore. “There was one guy that I wasn’t getting along with very well, and it made touring not fun anymore for me,” he said. “My reason to stick around was to make a new record that was great and I’d be proud of and all that stuff, and then it became kind of clear that wasn’t gonna happen, so I was, like, ‘What am I doing it for?’ So I quit.”
Seinfeld made his last recorded appearance with BIOHAZARD on 2012’s “Reborn In Defiance” album, which marked the first LP featuring the band’s original lineup in 18 years.
Graziadei is currently a member of POWERFLO, which also features Christian Olde Wolbers (FEAR FACTORY), Sen Dog (CYPRESS HILL) and Rogelio Lozano (DOWNSET).
The first reunion gig from Gradziadei, Hambel, Schuler and Seinfeld took place on May 26 at the Milwaukee Metal Fest at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
BIOHAZARD will make a number of other appearances throughout 2023, including at multiple international festivals in the summer, and will play select gigs in America.
This past January, Schuler told Dan Shinder of Drum Talk TV, Schuler about how BIOHAZARD came back together: “We haven’t toured in about seven years, almost eight years. In about 2015, [that] was the last year of touring. We wrapped it up after that. We went in the studio to go do a record and things just kind of imploded; everybody’s a bunch of crazy personalities. In the ensuing years, we didn’t do anything as BIOHAZARD. And then about a year and a half ago, my brother, who lives in Torrance, California, was flying back home to New York to come see everybody. And he gets to the airport here, and he says to me, ‘You won’t believe who I saw at the airport.’ And I said, ‘Who was that?’ And he goes, ‘I saw Evan,’ the bass player from BIOHAZARD, Evan Seinfeld, who I hadn’t spoken to in 10 years. And they had a good conversation, and it was cordial. And he basically sent a message through my brother, ‘Tell Danny I said hi.’ So a week later, I’m going on vacation. I’m feeling good. I’m going down to the beach house here in [New] Jersey with my wife and my kids, and I said to my wife, ‘Maybe I should call him’ — you know, just bury the hatchet. Who cares anymore? Like everybody, COVID and all these people dying and all this stuff, it’s, like, who the hell cares about all that old stuff that made you mad. So my wife was, like, ‘Yeah, why don’t you give him a call? Don’t be an asshole. Call him.’
“Anyway, long story short, I did call him and we spoke,” he continued. “And we just kind of buried the hatchet. And the other guys in the band, Bobby and Billy, had been speaking, and we’ve been speaking, and everybody just kind of started talking a little bit. And unfortunately, our former manager, Scott Koenig, who was out in Los Angeles, he passed away. And that was a real moment where it was, like, ‘Wow.’ Scott was with us from the beginning, and he was like a fifth member of the band. … That was in October of ’21. … I got that call. And the same week, Ir friend of ours from a band called DOG EAT DOG, our friend Sean Kilkenny passed away the same day as Scott. So it was two phone calls, two brothers, two great, close friends, like family, both passed at the same time. And for me, that was kind of one of those things where it’s just, like, who cares about all the negative bullshit in the past? Who cares? We’re still here. We did great stuff together. We created something cool. We should all be friends. And that was my thinking. And everyone kind of felt the same way. And that kind of was the beginning of how it started, getting the band together.”
Last year, Graziadei said in an interview that there had been “talk” about putting BIOHAZARD back together.
The group, which is acknowledged as one of the earliest outfits to fuse hardcore punk and heavy metal with elements of hip-hop, had been out of the public eye since Scott Roberts left the band seven years ago.
Roberts, who played guitar on BIOHAZARD‘s 2005 album “Means To An End”, rejoined the group in June 2011 as the replacement for Seinfeld. Scott fronted BIOHAZARD for nearly five years before exiting the band in February 2016.
In an August 2020 interview with the “Aftershocks” podcast, Roberts said that he left BIOHAZARD because he “wasn’t happy” anymore. “There was one guy that I wasn’t getting along with very well, and it made touring not fun anymore for me,” he said. “My reason to stick around was to make a new record that was great and I’d be proud of and all that stuff, and then it became kind of clear that wasn’t gonna happen, so I was, like, ‘What am I doing it for?’ So I quit.”
Seinfeld made his last recorded appearance with BIOHAZARD on 2012’s “Reborn In Defiance” album, which marked the first LP featuring the band’s original lineup in 18 years.
Graziadei is currently a member of POWERFLO, which also features former FEAR FACTORY bassist/guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers, Sen Dog from CYPRESS HILL, and Rogelio Lozano from DOWNSET.
Billy‘s solo project, BILLYBIO, released a new album, “Leaders And Liars”, in March 2022 via AFM Records.
This past January, Schuler told Dan Shinder of Drum Talk TV, Schuler about how BIOHAZARD came back together: “We haven’t toured in about seven years, almost eight years. In about 2015, (that) was the last year of touring. We wrapped it up after that. We went in the studio to go do a record and things just kind of imploded; everybody’s a bunch of crazy personalities. In the ensuing years, we didn’t do anything as BIOHAZARD. And then about a year and a half ago, my brother, who lives in Torrance, California, was flying back home to New York to come see everybody. And he gets to the airport here, and he says to me, ‘You won’t believe who I saw at the airport.’ And I said, ‘Who was that?’ And he goes, ‘I saw Evan,’ the bass player from BIOHAZARD, Evan Seinfeld, who I hadn’t spoken to in 10 years. And they had a good conversation, and it was cordial. And he basically sent a message through my brother, ‘Tell Danny I said hi.’ So a week later, I’m going on vacation. I’m feeling good. I’m going down to the beach house here in (New) Jersey with my wife and my kids, and I said to my wife, ‘Maybe I should call him’ — you know, just bury the hatchet. Who cares anymore? Like everybody, COVID and all these people dying and all this stuff, it’s, like, who the hell cares about all that old stuff that made you mad. So my wife was, like, ‘Yeah, why don’t you give him a call? Don’t be an asshole. Call him.’
“Anyway, long story short, I did call him and we spoke,” he continued. “And we just kind of buried the hatchet. And the other guys in the band, Bobby and Billy, had been speaking, and we’ve been speaking, and everybody just kind of started talking a little bit. And unfortunately, our former manager, Scott Koenig, who was out in Los Angeles, he passed away. And that was a real moment where it was, like, ‘Wow.’ Scott was with us from the beginning, and he was like a fifth member of the band. … That was in October of ’21. … I got that call. And the same week, another friend of ours from a band called DOG EAT DOG, our friend Sean Kilkenny passed away the same day as Scott. So it was two phone calls, two brothers, two great, close friends, like family, both passed at the same time. And for me, that was kind of one of those things where it’s just, like, who cares about all the negative bullshit in the past? Who cares? We’re still here. We did great stuff together. We created something cool. We should all be friends. And that was my thinking. And everyone kind of felt the same way. And that kind of was the beginning of how it started, getting the band together.”
As for the possibility of a new BIOHAZARD album, Schuler said: “Making new music wasn’t really something I was really thinking about too much, but it’s come up so much in the last few months since we’ve been talking about all this stuff. So we’ll see how it goes. There’s definitely interest there for us to do it. I just hope we can do it. I wanna be able to do it at the level we always did it at.
“I write a lot of music on my own, of course, but I’m very much into collaboration,” he explained. “I’ve always needed a partner, or partners, to really bring the best out of me, to challenge myself. And I always loved getting in a room with these guys. We’ve always come up with great stuff when we’re in the right mindset to do it. So I’m excited to get in a room with them and just let shit fly. I have the energy for it, I’m ready and I’m excited to do it, and I think they are too. So I’m hopeful that we’re gonna make something really cool and different and innovative.”
In addition to touring, BIOHAZARD has a 35th-anniversary documentary in the works containing previously unreleased footage spanning four decades.
“BIOHAZARD is an iconic band that ripped it up on the streets of New York when I lived there in the late ’80s and early ’90s, so I’m excited to be working with them to bring their pioneering hardcore sound to a new generation,” said Andy Gould (ROB ZOMBIE, PANTERA, TYPE O NEGATIVE). The band is managed by Gould and Paul Gargano and booked by Jim Morewood at the K2 Agency internationally, and Steve Sokol at Pinnacle in North America.
Stated Graziadei: “Over the years, we made some great music together and had so many incredible shows on some pretty amazing tours. After spending so much time and focus on POWERFLO and my solo project BILLYBIO, things just fell in place at the right time and I decided it was the time to recapture that energy and go kick ass again with the original lineup of BIOHAZARD with DannyBobby, and Evan!”
Added Hambel: “I’m honored to perform with the band again. I can’t wait to get onstage with the guys and do what we do! I’m looking forward to traveling and playing live. See you out there!”
Stated Seinfeld: “It’s been ten years since we all played together, and I’m in a huge place of gratitude for the opportunity to get back to the roots of BIOHAZARD and not only reconnect with the other guys, but also the fans. We’ve been through decades of madness, and it feels like the fantastic four are back together.”
Last year, Graziadei said in an interview that there had been “talk” about putting BIOHAZARD back together.
The group, which is acknowledged as one of the earliest outfits to fuse hardcore punk and heavy metal with elements of hip-hop, had been out of the public eye since Scott Roberts left the band seven years ago.
Roberts, who played guitar on BIOHAZARD‘s 2005 album “Means To An End”, rejoined the group in June 2011 as the replacement for Seinfeld. Scott fronted BIOHAZARD for nearly five years before exiting the band in February 2016.
In an August 2020 interview with the “Aftershocks” podcast, Roberts said that he left BIOHAZARD because he “wasn’t happy” anymore. “There was one guy that I wasn’t getting along with very well, and it made touring not fun anymore for me,” he said. “My reason to stick around was to make a new record that was great and I’d be proud of and all that stuff, and then it became kind of clear that wasn’t gonna happen, so I was, like, ‘What am I doing it for?’ So I quit.”
Seinfeld made his last recorded appearance with BIOHAZARD on 2012’s “Reborn In Defiance” album, which marked the first LP featuring the band’s original lineup in 18 years.
Graziadei is currently a member of POWERFLO, which also features former FEAR FACTORY bassist/guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers, Sen Dog from CYPRESS HILL, and Rogelio Lozano from DOWNSET.
Billy‘s solo project, BILLYBIO, released a new album, “Leaders And Liars”, in March 2022 via AFM Records.
Social media