Wage War

American melodic metalcore band Wage War formed in 2010 in Ocala, Florida. The earliest lineup consisted of vocalist Briton Bond, guitarists Seth Blake and Cody Quistad, bassist Jordan Pierce, and drummer David Rau, all of whom began performing together under the name Empires. After a few changes in their rhythm section (Pierce was replaced by Chris Gaylord and Stephen Kluesener filled in for Rau), the group renamed itself Wage War and signed to Fearless Records in 2015. Produced by Jeremy McKinnon (A Day to Remember) and Andrew Wade (Neck Deep) their studio debut Blueprints appeared later that year, reaching Number 9 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart. Following a promotional US tour in support of the album, Wage War headed back into the studio to start working on the follow-up to their first LP. Mainstream success arrived in 2017 through their sophomore effort Deadweight, a critically acclaimed effort that hit Number 2 on the American Hard Rock charts and Number 54 on the Billboard Albums 200. Preceded by the singles "Low," "Who I Am," "Prison," and "Me Against Myself," a third full-length titled Pressure arrived in 2019 with same success (Number 5 on the Hard Rock charts), followed by Manic in 2021. Entirely written and partly inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, Manic produced the singles "High Horse," "Circle the Drain," and "Godspeed," which peaked at Number 39 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart almost a year after the album's release. An acoustic album, The Stripped Sessions, followed in 2022, before the release of Stigma (2024) and its four charted singles Magnetic", "Nails", "Tombstone", and "Blur".