Put the name “Billy” into a New York hardcore context and it can only mean one man, Billy Graziadei, who is now back with the second album from his BillyBio project. Biohazard have not released an album since 2012’s ‘Reborn In Defiance’ but given they have not officially broken up we can only hope that the band who gave us the mighty ‘Uncivilization’ (among others) will one day return. Billy has kept himself busy over the years, and this is the second album from BillyBio where he provides the songs and vocals and is joined by PowerFlo drummer Fred Aching Rios, Suicidal Tendencies bassist Ra Diaz, Death By Stereo / Zebrahead guitarist Dan Palmer, and The Exploited guitarist Robbie Davidson. Here we have Billy no longer having to present songs for input from other guys but instead is composing and performing just what he wants.

This means we get hardcore, punk and metal crashing into each other at full speed and there is more than enough from each genre to satisfy fans who normally would not cross those boundaries themselves. It is not all buzzsaw riffs and a rhythm section driving hard, but there is indeed plenty of that combined with the aggressive vocals we have all come to know and love over the last 30+ years. One can imagine fans of The Offspring loving songs like “Turn The Wounds”, but here the punk feels real and raw, delivered the passion we have come to expect. This is not Biohazard Mark II, but instead takes that iconic band as a starting point and moves in a different direction while never alienating the original hardcore fans while experimenting on the likes of “Sheepdog” as Billy refuses to be pigeonholed. Fun yet brutal, this shows Graziadei looking back to his past as he drives to a new future.

Rating: 7/10

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/BillyBioHardcore/
https://www.afm-records.de/