I think in metal circles groove carries around a kinda inauthentic implication just by the very word.

Eh, perhaps for some, but why? Certainly not for me. As a drummer, I fucking love groove especially, and the first band that comes to mind is something like Budgie, not Machine Head or whatever. But an album like Blood Ritual from Samael is also one I would consider to be extremely "groovy".

I guess you don't ask if Biohazard's music is groovy but if they are "groove metal," which is not the same thing. Groove metal is one of the worst misnomer because this slow and heavy kind of thrash metal with tough guy vocals has very few qualities that fit with the core meaning of groove in music. Furthermore, the term groove metal emerged lately to name this scene that was struggling hard to get a name.

Assuming you're asking wether Biohazard is "groove metal" or not, that is, can they be classified in the same genre as Pantera, Machine Head and the likes, I would say they sound more hardcore metal (not metalcore!). But back in the 90's, when the term "groove metal" had not emerged yet, it was not uncommon that Biohazard and Pantera were compared. Which is not surprising since bands who would lately called groove metal were often perceived as thrash metal with hardcore influences. Biohazard was more on the hardcore side though.

I've tried to search for information about the fact that the term appeared very lately and there's almost nothing to be found about it. I've just found one guy who started to listen to metal in the early 90's like me, who wrote an article about groove metal confirming it was never called like this back then. Until now, I've never found anyone able to bring any evidence when the term began to be coined. According to him, it appeared 15 years after the scene emerged, so around 2005/2010, which sounds absolutely right but I cannot confirm because I had moved away from metal a bit at that time.

I remember Terrorizer Magazine trying to coin the term 'woolly hat metal', in a slight tongue-in-cheek fashion. It didn't stick.

In short, prime Biohazard (i.e., "Urban Discipline") is not Groove metal because that term does not really mean anything in that context.

Anyway, their influence in changing paradigm in metal was big: old-school metalheads quickly became uncool and many jumped in the bandwagon. I remember my band's drummer trying to convince us that we should wear like that, slow down the tempo while playing with a thicker sound...

Yeah, many of these guys making this stuff were based in the thrash scene. Robb Flynn is a famous example of course, but there was also the main guy from Skinlab who came from Defiance, the Paingod guys who started as Raped Ape, Pro-Pain evolved from Crumbsuckers, etc. It was an evolution that affected many of the thrash and crossover bands.

This sounds about right to me. No-one ever used this term back in the 90s. I never heard it until around 2010-ish.

As someone who was just getting into metal around '97/'98? Yes, we did. The first time I saw it used was online in '99, but it had been used now and then to differentiate the bands that played thrash metal and the 90s-style slowed down stuff, taking the term from an interview where Dimebag Darrel referred to Pantera's music as "powergroove." It was a further mixing of metal and hardcore punk, amping up the late 80s "tough guy" hardcore influence with a greater focus on chugga riffs and a more street-level attitude toward lyricism.

That said, Biohazard have always been a hardcore band, but one that gets a lot of love and flack from both the hardcore and metal scenes for how they blended the styles with the addition of a hip hop influence.

I'm gonna have to check urban discipline, the only thing I really hate in any alternative metal or rock is lame teenage angst so a bunch of guys who wanna knock your teeth out is right up my alley

One of the best bands to ever do it, for my money. I would personally view them as groove enough, they teeter on the edge between groove and hardcore to my ears, straight back to their first album. But I get those who hear this as predominantly hardcore.

I was conditioned from a young age via their videos being shown on Headbangers Ball alongside more “legit” metal bands to accept Biohazard as metal or within the metal sphere.

Amazing live band too, saw them twice. Pure visceral energy.



State Of The World Address is their masterpiece, with Urban Discipline as a very close second. SOTWA does everything UD does better, and with a much beefier, hard hitting production.

Biohazard, Mata Leao (the purest hardcore punk album they’ve done), Uncivilization (their most experimental album), Kill Or Be Killed (by far their most brutal album), and Reborn In Defiance (original lineup reunion) are all excellent albums too.

Only New World Disorder (slower/mid paced, kind of boring) and Means To An End (not horrible, just a bit of a retread) are their missteps.

The original lineup is back together again, hopefully we get some new music.

I can´t give any evidence, but I think Groove Metal was coined in the late 90s for Pantera and the likes.

I remember seeing the term half-thrash a lot on MA in the 2000s. Was that just another term for groove metal? And was it ever used in the real world?

It's just your thought but it's not a fact. Like many here and there, I had never heard of "groove metal" until the 2010's.

Also the term power groove was used in a review in 2006 for the album Cowboys from hell in a review writen by Invaded

Believing in god does not mean god exists...

But again, I remember having discussions on early social media site Bolt.com, circa 1999, about "groove metal" and what differentiated it from "mallcore," so those terms aren't as new as some are claiming. I don't think it became codified, for lack of a better term, until the mid-00s, but the term didn't just arise from this site.

In any case, "groove metal" has basically been a catch-all term for bands that play NYHC-influenced metal with a focus on mid-tempo riffs and street-level bravado lyrical themes, focusing on the mosh riffs of thrash songs and adding breakdowns. The line blurs especially with bands that came out of the NYHC scene, like Biohazard (and Pro-Pain).

Groove metal is a 90s genre that was invented by bands like Pantera, Fear Factory, White Zombie, Chaos AD, and Roots from Sepultura, that kind of sound that Roadrunner pushed as the new heavy style after the boom of thrash metal in the 80s. Lamb of God is a pretty popular band from that style and they played way after the beginning of those bands. I think it is an established genre, not so sure why some guys are saying that there is not a real genre. I think the genre functions as a link between thrash and modern metal styles like metalcore or nu metal.

There's some Google Books results for "groove metal" from 1999 (CMJ magazine) & 2000 (books about Pantera and Rob Zombie). Very sparse use before and after that though, so it did indeed take a couple of starts before the term was widespread.