Wage War

Wage War emerged as a ferocious metalcore outfit that fuses punk's unfiltered energy with the polished force of melodic hardcore. Their breakthrough arrived via the 2017 sophomore album Deadweight, after which the group kept testing the limits of contemporary hardcore through Pressure in 2019, Manic in 2021, and Stigma in 2024.

In Ocala, Florida, guitarists Cody Quistad and Seth Blake first connected during high school, planting the groundwork for a band. They brought in vocalist Briton Bond, bassist Jordan Pierce, and drummer David Rau to create Empires. A 2013 roster shift that placed Chris Gaylord on bass and Stephen Kluesener behind the kit gave rise to Wage War. The melodic metalcore act paired punishing intensity with an uplifting outlook and secured a deal with Fearless Records. Their debut LP, Blueprints, came out in late 2015 after sessions co-produced by Jeremy McKinnon of A Day to Remember and Andrew Wade, whose credits include Neck Deep and A Ghost Inside. The ferocious lead singles “Alive” and “Twenty One” paved the way for the record.

Once the supporting tours wrapped, the musicians headed back into the studio. The punishing track “Witness” surfaced in 2017 as the opening single from their second album, Deadweight, which followed that August. For the third full-length, they tapped producer Drew Fulk, known for work with Motionless in White and Lil Peep; Pressure appeared in August 2019. Two years afterward, the band dropped “High Horse” and “Circle the Drain” before unveiling album number four, Manic, which climbed to number 16 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart. Stigma, issued in 2024, cranked the aggression higher still—an unyielding collection of metalcore anthems laced with industrial and electronic textures.