Means to an End

by Greg Prato Love 'em or hate 'em, you can't argue with the fact that Biohazard played a major role in popularizing a style which emerged from the underground during the 1990s -- an oft-copied merger of hardcore and heavy metal. Other bands may have leapfrogged over the boys from Brooklyn sales-wise, but Biohazard continue to crank out albums and tour regularly, as evidenced by their eighth studio effort overall (and their first for the SPV label), Means to an End. Released just over ten years after their best-known and best-selling release, 1994's State of the World Address, End shows that there are still plenty of things in this world that get under Biohazard's skin. As with all their previous releases, brutal riffs, spot-on drumming, and angst-filled hollering are offered up in hefty doses here, especially on such standouts as the album opener, "My Life, My Way" and "Killing to Be Free." Expectedly, there's not an awful lot of variation on this release , but that's the way Biohazard fans like it -- non-stop pummeling from beginning to end. The godfathers of the hardcore metal genre are still alive and well -- Means to an End is all the proof you need.