Wage War is an American

metalcore Metalcore (also known as metallic hardcore) is a fusion music genre that combines elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. As with other styles blending metal and hardcore, such as crust punk and grindcore, metalcore is noted for its use ...

band formed in

Ocala, Florida Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida. Home to ...

in 2010 under the name Empires. The band consists of lead vocalist Briton Bond, lead guitarist Seth Blake, rhythm guitarist and clean vocalist Cody Quistad, bassist Chris Gaylord, and drummer Stephen Kluesener. The band has released four studio albums and one EP. The band self-released one EP, ''The Fall of Kings'' in 2011. In 2015, the band signed to

Fearless Records Fearless Records is an American independent record label that was founded in 1994. Fearless is based in Culver City, California, and is best known for its early pop punk moments captured in the ''Fearless Flush Sampler'' and ''Punk Bites'' releas ...

. The band released their first studio album, ''

Blueprints A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing or engineering drawing using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets. Introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1842, the process allowed rapid and accurate production of an unlimited numb ...

'', on November 27, 2015. Their second studio album '' Deadweight'' was released on August 4, 2017. Their third studio album, ''

Pressure Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country a ...

'', was released on August 30, 2019. Their fourth studio album, '' Manic'', was released on October 1, 2021.

History

Formation, line-up change and ''Blueprints'' (2010–2016)

Wage War started in 2010 under the name "Empires" in

. The band originally consisted of Briton Bond (

unclean vocals A death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other extreme subgenres of heavy metal music. Death growl vocals are sometimes criticized for their ...

), Cody Quistad (rhythm guitar/clean vocals), Seth Blake (lead guitar), Jordan Pierce (bass) and David Rau (drums). Rau quit the band to focus on teaching and is now residing as a teacher at

West Port High School West Port High School is an American high school in Ocala, Florida and one of eight public high schools in Marion County. Founded in 2000 and constructed at 3733 SW 80th Avenue, West Port is the district high school for West Ocala. The campus f ...

in the band's hometown. The band changed their name to Wage War and hired on Chris Gaylord to replace Pierce and Stephen J. Kluesener to replace Rau. As of October 2019, Rau occasionally fills in for Kluesener. In 2015, the band signed to

, with a single produced by

Jeremy McKinnon Jeremy Wade McKinnon (born December 17, 1985) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as a founding member and the lead vocalist of A Day to Remember. He has produced full-length albums for The Ghost Inside, Neck Deep ...

and

Andrew Wade Andrew Robert Wade (born August 4, 1984) is an American recording engineer and music producer. Early years and A Wish for Marilynne (2002–2006) In August 2002, Wade started playing guitar and singing lead vocals in Christian rock/ emo band A ...

. After being signed to Fearless, the band released their debut album, ''

''.

''Deadweight'' (2017–2018)

Their second album '' Deadweight'' was released with Fearless Records on August 4, 2017. Wage War has done a number of tours, including playing on the entirety of the

Vans Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running tour ...

in 2016, and A Day to Remember's Self Help Festival in 2017. The band has also opened for artists such as

August Burns Red August Burns Red is an American metalcore band from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, formed in 2003. The band's current lineup consists of lead guitarist John Benjamin "JB" Brubaker, rhythm guitarist Brent Rambler, drummer Matt Greiner, lead vocalist ...

Chelsea Grin Chelsea Grin is an American deathcore band from Salt Lake City, Utah. Formed in 2007, the group have released two EPs and five full-length albums. Since 2018, no original members remain in the band. Chelsea Grin was originally founded under ...

, I Prevail,

The Amity Affliction The Amity Affliction is an Australian metalcore band from Gympie, Queensland, formed in 2003. The band's current line-up consists of Ahren Stringer (bass, clean vocals), Joel Birch (lead vocals), Dan Brown (guitar) and Joe Longobardi (drums) ...

, Northlane,

Every Time I Die Every Time I Die was an American metalcore band from Buffalo, New York, formed in 1998. For most of the band's career, the line-up was centred on brothers Keith (vocals) and Jordan Buckley (guitar), as well as rhythm guitarist Andy Williams wi ...

For Today For Today was an American Christian metalcore band from Sioux City, Iowa, formed in 2005. They released two EPs, ''Your Moment, Your Life, Your Time'' and ''Prevailer'', and six full-length albums: '' Ekklesia'' in, 2008, ''Portraits'' in 2009, ...

and Of Mice & Men. The band played with

Parkway Drive Parkway Drive is an Australian metalcore band from Byron Bay, New South Wales, formed in 2003. As of 2018, Parkway Drive have released six studio albums, one EP, two DVDs, a split album and one book, titled ''Ten Years of Parkway Drive''. The b ...

on their mini June 2017 tour. The band embarked on their first national headliner in the July 2017, in support of their new album ''Deadweight''.

Gideon Gideon (; ) also named Jerubbaal and Jerubbesheth, was a military leader, judge and prophet whose calling and victory over the Midianites are recounted in of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. Gideon was the son of Joash, from the Abiez ...

and

Varials Varials is an American metalcore band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in October 2013. The band currently consists of lead vocalist Mitchell Rogers, guitarist James Hohenwarter, bassist Mike Foley and drummer Sean Rauchut. History The ...

joined up as support. The second leg of the tour featured Gideon and Varials once again.

Oceans Ate Alaska Oceans Ate Alaska are a British metalcore band hailing from Birmingham formed in 2010. The band are currently signed to Fearless Records and are known for "uniting boundaries between multiple genres in modern metal" and for "fusing unpredict ...

and Loathe joined up as support. Wage War played on the final touring portion of the 2018 Vans Warped Tour.

''Pressure'' (2019–2020)

On January 9, 2019, the band released a single titled "Low" through their label Fearless Records. Six months later, on July 9, they released a second single, "Who I Am". Then later that month, on July 30, the band released two singles, "Prison" and "Me Against Myself". Upon doing this, the band unveiled their plans for a third studio album, revealing the album's title, tracklist, and release date. ''

'', their third album, was released on August 30, 2019. On March 18, Wage War lost all of their Myspace content from 2016 and earlier in "a server migration gone wrong" from the Empires era (with the exception of ''The Fall of Kings'' EP). It was widely reported that over 50 million songs and 12 years worth of content was permanently lost, and there was no backup. Wage War played on the 25th Anniversary Vans Warped Tour in Atlantic City, New Jersey and in Mountain View, California. The band went on tour throughout the Fall of 2019, in support of their latest album, ''Pressure''.

Like Moths to Flames Like Moths to Flames is an American metalcore band from Columbus, Ohio, formed in 2010 by former members of various bands, including Emarosa, Agraceful, the Crimson Armada, and My Ticket Home. The band has released four studio albums and three ...

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...

and

Dayseeker Dayseeker is an American post-hardcore band from Orange County, California, United States. The band is currently signed to Spinefarm Records Spinefarm Records is a Finnish independent record label focusing mainly on heavy metal artists. It is ...

joined up as support for the tour. On November 13, 2020, the band dropped a new song called "Surrounded", a previously unreleased track from ''Blueprints'', which harks back to their heavier beginnings.

''Manic'' (2020–present)

On April 8, 2020, while on their downtime during the period of self-isolation caused by

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Wage War announced on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that they are working on new material for the upcoming record. Along with the announcement, the band also tease a new song and wrote: "Making the most of quarantine. #ww4" On August 6, 2021, the band released a song called "High Horse". On August 25, the band officially released the second single "Circle the Drain" from their fourth studio album, '' Manic'', which was released on October 1, 2021. At the same time, the band revealed the album cover and the tracklist. To promote the album, the band also announced that they will support I Prevail's rescheduled European tour along with

Dream State Dream State are a Welsh rock band from South Wales formed in 2014. They signed to Australian record label UNFD in 2017 and have released two EPs (their debut ''Consequences'' in 2015 and ''Recovery'' in 2018) as well as a studio album '' Primro ...

in March 2022. On September 14, the band released the third single "Teeth". On November 18, 2022, the band announced an acoustic album called ''The Stripped Sessions'', which was released on December 2, 2022.

Musical style

Wage War's musical style has been described as

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

melodic metalcore Melodic metalcore is a fusion genre, incorporating elements of melodic death metal and metalcore; it has a heavy emphasis on melodic instrumentation, distorted guitar tones, palm muting, double bass drumming, blast beats, metalcore-stylized brea ...

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...

, and

melodic hardcore Melodic hardcore is a broadly defined subgenre of hardcore punk with a strong emphasis on melody in its guitar work. It generally incorporates fast rhythms, melodic and often distorted guitar riffs, and vocal styles tending towards shouting and ...

. The band also utilizes elements of

djent Djent () is a subgenre of progressive metal characterised by its use of off-beat and complex rhythm patterns. Its distinctive sound is that of high-gain, distorted, palm-muted, down-tuned strings. The name "djent" is an onomatopoeia of this s ...

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu met ...

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

, pop, and hip hop.

Band members

Rock im Park The (German language, German for "Rock at the Ring") and ("Rock in the Park") festivals are two simultaneous rock music festivals held annually. While ''Rock am Ring'' takes place at the Nürburgring race track, ''Rock im Park'' takes place at ...