WAGE WAR // Keep Fighting

There’s a perception that metalcore is a bubble of high-quality, albeit somewhat predictable bands.

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All are marked by slick modern production and songs that offer a package of a hooky choruses, mosh call n’ return vocals, and the biggest, baddest breakdown possible.

A fine combo, 100% – but for people after something a bit more, it can be hard to get overly excited when bands tagged with the genre—like Wage War —offer up new records.

However, one listen to WW’s new record Manic promptly stomps on any preconceptions one might have of the Floridian quintet being ‘just another modern core band.’

Equal parts atmospheric and catchy (without crossing into butt-rock territory) – whilst being genuinely aggressive and unpredictable—the album is arguably one of the finest of the year, with the combination of A Day To Remember frontman Jeremy McKinnon and producer / songwriter Drew Faulk offering the perfect balance of excitability and refinement.

“It was a great combo—Jeremy helped us stay really close to our roots, but Faulk really helped us push the envelope, and the result is just a really cool record,” says frontman Briton Bond, speaking to us on a break between tours.

“We’ve had the tunes in the bank for a while – we just want to keep having fun, we’re always going to be a metal band – that’s what we love!

“We want to push ourselves within that world though- songs like Death Roll, off this new record, are some of the heaviest ones we’ve ever done.”

The impressive progression in the Wage War sound is perhaps best heard on the title track of Manic, a menacing mix of trap, beatdown hardcore and hip-hop that sticks out like a sore thumb from the bands’ Fearless Records labelmates.

We became best friends again while writing this album – that was a really awesome experience for us and probably the biggest thing that made this writing process feel so successful for us.
[ Briton Bond ]

“That’s one of the last songs that made the record- it just came from a really cool demo with a hip-hop lo-fi drum beat – it was really out of the box for us so we really worked hard on it and it came together great in the studio for us – that’s my favourite song on the record,” says Briton.

“We don’t ever really have a plan beforehand of what we want an album to sound like – this one just happened to be a bit more dark and menacing – I guess that kind of reflects the time that we’re in.”

Written right at the start of the pandemic, Manic is a skillfully crafted collection of tunes, the sound of a band making the most of an unexpected break in a usually heavy touring schedule, and channeling all their unwanted downtime into their finest creative work to mark a decade of existence.

“The entire music world got put on pause a little bit—with Pressure we only got to do two tours on that album cycle—but we had to get back in the lab and keep working—we did a cabin retreat at the start of the pandemic and just wrote a heap of new stuff,” says Briton.

“We became best friends again while writing this album – that was a really awesome experience for us and probably the biggest thing that made this writing process feel so successful for us.

“We had to have a week straight of rehearsals before playing any of them live – before our recent tour with Beartooth we just grinded and grinded running the set for eight hours a day – but the end product is that the songs sound great live – we hadn’t played a show together in over two years so it was very much needed.”

With ten years in the books and a sound continuing to progress, it appears that Wage War is far from running out of ideas or creative hunger – something that Briton confirms, pointing to the veterans of 21st century heavy music as a source of inspiration for where he wants to see the band go.

“There’s so many bands that have been around for so long like Lamb of God and Slipknot and they all still kill it and come out with awesome new material – so hopefully we can keep pumping out the good records for a long time!”