Wage War is an American

metalcore Metalcore is a broadly defined fusion genre combining elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk, originating in the 1990s United States and becoming popular in the 2000s. Metalcore typically has aggressive verses and melodic choruses, combined ...

band formed in

Ocala, Florida Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Florida, United States. Located in North Central Florida, the city's population was 63,591 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 56,315 at the 2010 census and making ...

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 five 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 number ...

'', 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 and eve ...

'', was released on August 30, 2019. Their fourth studio album, '' Manic'', was released on October 1, 2021. Their fifth studio album, ''Stigma'', was released on June 21, 2024.

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 Vocalists are capable of producing a variety of extended technique sounds. These alternative singing techniques have been used extensively in the 20th century, especially in art song and opera. Particularly famous examples of extended vocal techniq ...

), 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 was previously 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 built at 3733 SW 80th Avenue, it is the district high school for West Ocala. The campus formerly h ...

in the band's hometown. The band briefly changed their name to War Within before changing it again to Wage War. Since the name change to Wage War, the band 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 and record producer. He is a founding member and lead vocalist of the rock band A Day to Remember. He has produced full-length albums for The Ghost Inside, Neck Deep, and Wage ...

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 W ...

. 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 is a touring rock music festival that toured the United States and Canada each summer from 1995 until 2019, and returned in 2025 for its 30th anniversary. By 2015, Warped was the largest traveling music festival in the United S ...

in 2016, and

A Day to Remember A Day to Remember is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Ocala, Florida, in 2003 by guitarist Tom Denney and drummer Bobby Scruggs. They are known for their amalgamation of metalcore and pop-punk. The band currently consists of voca ...

'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 lineup of guitarists John Benjamin "JB" Brubaker and Brent Rambler, drummer Matt Greiner, lead vocalist Jake Luhrs and bassist Dustin David ...

Chelsea Grin Chelsea Grin is an American deathcore band from Salt Lake City, Utah. Formed in 2007, the group have released two EPs and seven full-length albums. Since 2018, no founding members remain in the band. Despite not being in the original line-up, ...

I Prevail I Prevail is an American rock band formed in Southfield, Michigan, in 2013. They released their debut EP '' Heart vs. Mind'' (2014) and rose to popularity from releasing a metal cover of Taylor Swift's " Blank Space" as a single, which eventua ...

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

Northlane Northlane are an Australian metalcore band from Blacktown, formed in 2009. The band comprises guitarists Jon Deiley and Josh Smith, drummer Nic Pettersen and vocalist Marcus Bridge. Northlane have released six studio albums: '' Discoveries'' ( ...

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, ...

For Today For Today were 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 ...

Of Mice & Men ''Of Mice and Men'' is a 1937 novella written by American author John Steinbeck. It describes the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, as they move from place to place in California, searching for ...

and

Disturbed Disturbed may refer to: Books * ''Disturbed'', a 2011 novel by Kevin O'Brien (author) Film and TV * ''Disturbed'' (film), a 1990 film starring Malcolm McDowell * "Disturbed" (''Numb3rs''), a 2009 episode of ''Numb3rs'' * "The Disturbed", a 20 ...

. The band played with

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

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 is recounted in of the Book of Judges in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible. Gideon was th ...

and

Varials Varials is an American metalcore band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in October 2013. The band currently consists of guitarist Shane Lyons, bassist Mike Foley and drummer Sean Rauchut. History The band members, all from Philadelphia or ...

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 was signed to Fearless Records and are known for "uniting boundaries between multiple genres in modern metal" and for "fusing unpredictable polyrhy ...

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 Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

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,

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

and

Dayseeker Dayseeker is an American post-hardcore band formed in Orange County, California, in 2012. The group consists of vocalist Rory Rodriguez, guitarist Gino Sgambelluri, bassist Ramone Valerio and drummer Zac Mayfield. They are currently signed to Sp ...

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'' (2020–2023)

On April 8, 2020, during the period of self-isolation caused by

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Wage War announced on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that they were working on new material for the upcoming record. Along with the announcement, the band also teased 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

'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 '' Primros ...

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.

''Stigma'' (2024–present)

On March 21, 2024, Wage War unveiled the first single titled "Magnetic" and its corresponding music video. On April 12, the band premiered the second single "Nail5" and an accompanying music video along with the album cover and track list. On May 17, the band released the third and final single "Tombstone". '' Stigma'' was released on June 21, 2024.

Musical style

Wage War's musical style has been described as

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 mute, palm muting, double bass drumming, blast beats, metalcore-sty ...

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

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. Like the term " post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad conste ...

melodic hardcore Melodic hardcore is a broadly defined subgenre of hardcore punk with a strong emphasis on melody in its guitar work. The style often includes guitar harmonies, riffs using octave chords, as well as broken chords. Additionally, lyrics tend towar ...

, and recently,

industrial metal Industrial metal is the fusion of Heavy metal music, heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating Heavy metal guitar, metal guitar riffs, sampling (music), sampling, synthesizer or music sequencer, sequencer lines, and Distor ...

. The band also utilizes elements of

djent Djent () is a subgenre of progressive metal, termed for an onomatopoeia of the guitar sound that characterizes it. While sources such as ''The Guardian'' and ''Guitar World'' describe djent as a Music genre, genre, some notable musicians includi ...

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

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

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

, and

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

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 in Germany. While ''Rock am Ring'' takes place at the Nürburgring race track, ''Rock im Park'' tak ...