By By Jim Shea
A few years ago, many bands made a name for themselves by combining hardcore and nu-metal sounds with a hip-hop flavor, creating a genre called rapcore. If you want to credit one band with starting this genre, the title goes to Brooklyn’s Biohazard.
Rapcore isn’t as big as it used to be. Many rapcore bands are either one-foot in the grave or have long been broken up. Biohazard strived on the rapcore sound for their career, but apparently have seen there’s not much of a future in the genre.
Means To An End is Biohazard’s final album in their 17-year career. There’s nothing groundbreaking about Means To An End, but Biohazard fans shouldn’t complain. On this album there are hints of the classic rapcore sound found in Urban Discipline, along with lyrics that pay tribute to their 1992 release. However, the band used material from New World Disorder and Uncivilization as a guideline for this swansong.
Hearing Seinfeld try to rap in Means To An End is like a broken record you want to stop. It’s actually guitarist Billy Graziadel who carries the band’s vocal duties, since Seinfeld’s vocals just don’t cut it anymore. In fact, the rapping brings down this album.
The good thing about Means To An End is that Biohazard preserves the traditional New York hardcore (NYHC) sound. The better tracks include “Kings Never Die,” “Set Me Free” and “Don’t Stand Alone,” which are clearly influenced by fellow NYHC bands, such as Sick Of It All and Agnostic Front.
While this isn’t the best “grand finale” album, it isn’t shabby either. There’s no doubt many followers of the NYHC scene will have to pick this one up, but one has to wonder what Biohazard will do next, now that all is said and done. Maybe Seinfeld will join his wife in the porn industry.
In any case, Biohazard will undoubtedly be remembered as the godfathers of rapcore.

The Chronicle gives “Means To An End” by Biohazard two 1/2 out of five stars