EVAN SEINFELD On Reunited BIOHAZARD: 'It Needed To Go Away For 10 Years For Everyone To Get Rejuvenated'

During an appearance on the Battleline Podcast, Evan Seinfeld explained how the classic lineup of BIOHAZARD managed to come back together last year for a series of festival appearances and headlining shows. The bassist/vocalist said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "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.

Last August, 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 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).

Billy's solo project, BILLYBIO, released a new album, "Leaders And Liars", in March 2022 via AFM Records.