In an interview with Reality Check TV on the red carpet at the ninth annual Metal Hall Of Fame on January 22 in Anaheim, California, BIOHAZARD guitarist/vocalist Billy Graziadei was asked about the progress of the recording sessions for the long-awaited new album from the reunited classic lineup of the metal/hardcore band. He said: “I fly out tomorrow to finish it…. It’s almost done. It’ll be out later this year. Hopefully it’ll be out before summer, but you never know.”
As for whether the new BIOHAZARD album has a title, Billy said: “Yep… Can’t say nothing.” But he added: “It’s a great fucking record.”
In December, BIOHAZARD entered Shorefire Recording Studios in Long Branch, New Jersey to begin recording its new LP, due later in the year via Frontiers Label Group‘s new imprint BLKIIBLK.
In late November, BIOHAZARD guitarist Bobby Hambel confirmed to The Brooklyn Blast Furnace podcast that he and his bandmates would enter the studio “in a couple of weeks” to begin recording their long-awaited new album.
“After playing together — what is it? — fucking year and a half, I think we’re ready to lay it down, to start puking out some more fucking stuff,” Bobby said. “It’s happening, too. It’s heavy shit, too.
“A lot of people say — they give their opinions on what they think we should do,” he continued. “And they’re always asking questions like, ‘Is it gonna be like this album or that album?’, and I can’t really answer any of that. I just can answer it’s coming from the same place it always came from, and I think everybody’s on point. Everybody wants it. So I think it’s time. We’ve got a lot of shit to say.”
In October, BIOHAZARD drummer Danny Schuler told Pod Scum about the group’s songwriting process: “It’s really all over the place in BIOHAZARD. Sometimes one guy brings in a couple of songs and we kind of go with that. Sometimes somebody has an idea and we’re all together in the jam room and we kind of all work through it together. It kind of happens a lot of different ways, but all four guys are very creative, some more than others, but everybody creates and brings in stuff. So there’s no one writer in BIOHAZARD. There’s never really been. But we all write. And now we’re getting ready to record a new record and we have so much new stuff. And it’s been really cool lately — a very creative environment lately to be around with everybody writing new stuff and getting psyched for a new album. It’s cool right now.
Asked why he thinks right now is the best time for a new BIOHAZARD album, Danny said: “Well, I don’t know if right now is the best time. I don’t think in terms of, like, ‘Oh, well, let’s do an album out now because now’s the best time.’ I don’t know that stuff. I don’t know when’s a good time to do a record. I just know when I feel inspired and I know when I’m coming up with stuff that I feel is real strong and meaningful, and lately it’s been a good time for that kind of creative process. So, for me, when the ideas are flowing and everything feels real natural, real strong, that’s a good time to do a record. Business-wise, I don’t know when’s a good time to do a record. I’m not a businessman, in that regard with the music business.”
In a separate 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 in April 2024 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.”
The first reunion gig from Graziadei, Hambel, Schuler and Seinfeld took place on May 26, 2023 at the Milwaukee Metal Fest at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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.