BIOHAZARD's Classic Lineup To Reunite For European Festival Appearances In 2023
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The classic lineup of BIOHAZARD — Billy Graziadei (rhythm guitar, vocals),Bobby Hambel (lead guitar),Danny Schuler (drums) and Evan Seinfeld (lead vocals, bass) — will reunite for an appearance at next year's Bloodstock Open Air festival at Catton Park, Walton-on-Trent, United Kingdom. BIOHAZARD will headline Sunday night, August 13, 2023, on the Sophie Lancaster stage. BIOHAZARD will also perform at the Dynamo Metalfest, set to take place August 19-20, 2023 in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
This past March, 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, has been out of the public eye since Scott Roberts left the band more than six 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.
Asked by Metal Injection about BIOHAZARD's current status, Billy said: "We talk often. I was with Evan at a memorial for my friend Scott [Koenig], and it was great to see him. Danny and Bobby and I talk quite often, and during the pandemic there were a few people that wanted to play bass for us. And then during the pandemic, we were all discussing and had a heart to heart. And basically, the outcome was, like, life's too short. If we don't take away anything from this pandemic, it's, like, if we're going to do something, let's put the band back together again.
"I'm the only member of the band that's still active in music," he continued. "I know the guys do things here and there, but it's what I do with what I love. It's me, so I'm going to keep going.
"With BIOHAZARD, it's always been a vibe thing with us. It's not like we sit down and say, 'Hey, in 2023, let's make an album. Let's go on tour and release the album mid-tour.' In a business sense, that'd be great. If I had the business sense that I have now, I would have been way more successful. But like I said, that was never my goal. It's still not my goal. My goal is music and art first. I probably won't be recognized for anything awesome until I'm dead and gone, but it's okay. I have other means to pay the bills and I have a great wife who supports me.
"BIOHAZARD is kind of like a vibe thing," Billy added. "It's like when the planets align and shit lines up, we do it. There's been different crazy twists and turns of our history, and I would imagine there will be in the future, but that's life. The pandemic was the fucking craziest curveball anyone ever thought would come, you know?"
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."
According to Roberts, BIOHAZARD was "doing really good" on the live circuit before his decision to leave the group.
"I was actually in the band longer than anybody else that wasn't the original four guys," he said. "I was in the band twice, actually; I played guitar the first time. So I was in the band, like, seven years, I think. The second time, when I was singing, at first, we were, like, 'Is this gonna work?' 'Cause it's really hard to replace a singer. In history, how many times has that actually worked? IRON MAIDEN, AC/DC… a handful of times. At first, it was definitely weird; people didn't know what to expect. But in time, the shows were getting bigger again, we were headlining festivals again — it was rolling, it was happening, it was working. But it all kind of fell apart."
Seinfeld made his final 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 via AFM Records.
(Source: www.blabbermouth.net)
