Band:	BillyBio
Album:	Leaders And Liars
Style:	Hardcore
Release date:	March 25, 2022
A review by:	omne metallum

01. Black Out
02. Fallen Empires
03. Leaders And Liars
04. Lost Horizon
05. Turn The Wounds
06. Sheepdog
07. Deception
08. Generation Kill
09. Looking Up
10. One Life To Live
11. Our Scene
12. Just In The Sun
13. Enough
14. Remission
15. Cyanide

Are you a man, or a mouse?

With Biohazard having sat gathering dust for much of the last ten years, BillyBio (né Billy Graziadei) has kept himself busy in the interim, forming and releasing albums with Powerflo and under the BillyBio banner, with Leaders And Liars being the second release by the latter project. While it may not hit the same heights that his work with Biohazard had, Leaders And Liars is a good, if not remarkable, collection of hardcore tracks that will keep listeners entertained.

To cut straight to the point, Leaders And Liars does have a lot in common with a Biohazard album; while there are slight variations here and there, fans of either will likely find plenty to enjoy with the latter. For those uninitiated, BillyBio is Graziadei’s solo hardcore project that dabbles in metal, hip hop (though to a limited extent on this album) and punk; a potent mix when done right (see Biohazard’s Urban Discipline) and while it is somewhat diluted here, Leaders And Liars it is an enjoyable batch distilled from the same formula.

Leaders And Liars is one of those albums that is strong as a unit but weaker when taken individually, with many of the tracks suffering when isolated. However, there are tracks that do stand above the rest, with “Turn The Wounds” perhaps being the strongest single track here, with its infectious refrain sticking in your mind. Tracks such as “Looking Up” and “Deception” sum up much of the rest of the album, good but not great, making the album a fun listen when you are able to hear the album in its totality, but unlikely to be an immediate addition to a playlist.

The production and quality of the band here are solid and serviceable, ensuring that you are able to hear solid hardcore riffs with powerful and concise audio. Perhaps the biggest weapon in the band’s arsenal is Graziadei’s vocals, balancing strong hardcore vocals with enough personality to stick out from the crowd and elevate them above the pack.

While Leaders And Liars does nothing particularly wrong, much of its shortcomings stem from the fact that it doesn’t do anything particularly great; with much of the album being enjoyable but not much more than that. “Generation Kill” typifies this, an ok track and one that won’t sway you much either way, scratching the itch but not quelling the urge. Much of the album falls short in this department to a fault, with a track like “Our Scene” sounding like your dime a dozen hardcore odes to the scene, gang chants and chainsaw guitars sounding too true to the genre’s roots, leaving you struggling to differentiate it to the plethora of similar tracks. This is somewhat remedied by the use of interludes, which do add a level of creativity to the album, but apart from a brief moment of differentiation, tracks like “Just In The Sun” add nothing overall.

Leaders And Liars is an enjoyable run through fifteen tracks of hardcore hitters, while it doesn’t quite hit the heights listeners would hope for, it is well worth giving your time if you are a fan of the genre or are looking for something to tide you over until the time Biohazard become active once again.