C'mon in, hop into my time machine, we'll take a trip back. The year is 1992. Rap is king, heavy metal is fading back into the underground and grunge is just starting to rear it's ugly head. A little-known band out of Brooklyn, NYC is tearing up the club scene in NYC and beyond. They have released a self-titled indie debut. They had toured Europe and signed with Roadrunner Records for one album. Little did they know that that one album would break them out of the underground, get rid of their day jobs and make Biohazard a staple of comercialized hardcore music for years to come. Urban Discipline was recorded in two weeks in May & June 1992 on a tiny budget. It proved to be the breakthrough for a band that would influnce the likes of Korn, Disturbed and many, many more.

The entire album is a testament to life on the streets of Brooklyn, or any other city. Blisteringly heavy with lyrical topics to match, the album shows no compromise whatsoever. The take it-or leave it New York HardCore attitude is prevalent throughout the entire album. There are no ballads or melodies, just raw, heavy in-your-face aggression. The traditional hardcore drumming, mixed with a heavy-metal type dual guitar attack and a rap-hardcore fusion reminiscent of recent "nu-metal" groups all combine to show the world a new style. To me, Biohazard started nu-metal. With songs like "Wrong Side Of The Tracks" and "Hold My Own," they sucessfully created the rapcore sound that would be duplicated to great commercial success later on. Songs like "Business," an anti-big business song about the music industry and "Chamber Spins Three" and the title track "Urban Discipline" about life on the streets, show what heavy music should be today. The only CD I've heard since this one came out that even holds a candle to the raw agression and power is Disturbed's The Sickness and even that great album falls short.

I loaned my original copy of Urban Discipline to a friend of mine who had a little marital dispute, and his wife got custody of it in the ensuing divorce. I recently went and picked up the 1998 remaster, with 4 bonus tracks on it. To say it still sounds great is an understatement. I missed this CD profusely and every time I heard Disturbed or Korn or Linkin Park or any nu-metal clone, it reminded me that Urban Discipline was the original. Often imitated, but never duplicated, this is barring none, the absolute best of the genre.

Track Listing

1. Chamber Spins Three
2. Punishment
3. Shades of Grey
4. Business
5. Black and White and Red All Over
6. Man With a Promise
7. Disease
8. Urban Discipline
9. Loss
10. Wrong Side of the Tracks
11. Mistaken Identity
12. We're Only Gonna Die (From Our Own Arrogance)
13. Tears of Blood
14. Hold My Own
15. Business [*][Demo Version]
16. Urban Discipline [*][Demo Version]
17. Loss [*][Demo Version]
18. Black and White and Red All Over [*][Demo Version]