Friday 14 December 2018

Album Review: BILLYBIO - Feed The Fire

BILLYBIO - Feed The Fire


01. Freedom's Never Free
02. Feed The Fire
03. No Apologies, No Regrets
04. Generation Z
05. Sick And Tired
06. Remedy (Interlude)
07. Sodality
08. Rise And Slay
09. Stfu
10. Trepidation (Interlude)
11. Untruth
12. Enemy
13. Disaffected World


Biohazard were one of my favourite bands as a teenager. When it came to the fusion of Hardcore, Rap and Metal, there was no-one better. I was also lucky enough to catch the band live many times over the years, and they were consistently phenomenal. The energy that band brought to the stage, and their connection with the fans was the stuff of legends. Naturally, when I heard that Biohazard main-man Billy Graziadei was releasing a solo album, I was all over it!

For the last couple of years, Billy has been in the supergroup Powerflo (read my review of their debut album here), but the band doesn't seem to have taken off to the level that I thought it might. With Cypress Hill currently on tour and playing much bigger shows, I'm taking an educated guess that Powerflo has been put on the back-burner, hence Billy putting his efforts into this, his first solo record. To be honest, I'm glad things worked out this way, as Feed The Fire is awesome!

From the BillyBio moniker, I made the assumption that Billy's solo record would be as close to a Biohazard album as possible, without the input of the other guys. Admittedly, a significant amount of the material here is very Biohazard, but this record has so much more to offer, and it's surprisingly diverse.

The album kicks off with the blistering slab of high-speed Hardcore that is Freedom's Never Free, which reminds me particularly of Biohazard's Mata Leao era. A few of the other tracks on here also remind me of that record, but with an updated production and sheen. Stfu is another great example, and the riffing really benefits from the modern production values, making the precision and ferocity sound clear and powerful.

There are some unexpected melodic, Pop-Punk-tinged moments amongst the brutality, such as on Feed The Fire and Generation Z. In contrast, there's some crushing Metal, such as on Rise and Slay, and heavy grooving beasts like the awesome Untruth and the pounding Sick and Tired.

Feed The Fire is an interesting record that really hits the spot in all the right ways. I'd go as far as to say it's as good as any record Billy has ever played on, and after all these years, that's a massive achievement.


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