Written by Maddy Howell
There is a particular kind of clarity that can only arrive in the wake of a storm.
For Wage War, it’s easy to feel like that moment has arrived with Landfall.
Never a band content to sit still, across each album they have pushed, pulled, expanded and reshaped their sound, moving between brutal metallic force, soaring melody, stripped-back vulnerability and arena-sized ambition.
Following 2024’s STIGMA, a record largely created to test the edges of what Wage War could be, the Florida heavyweights’ sixth album feels starkly different. A recalibration after a decade spent steadily climbing through modern metalcore’s ranks, Landfall is the sound of a band asking themselves what, at the deepest level, makes Wage War what it is - and then turning that answer all the way up.
“I don’t think we ever want to recreate the same album twice,” Cody Quistad says.
“There are a lot of different elements that make up our band, from the heavy stuff to the melodic stuff. We’ve done acoustic stripped-back EPs too, and I think we always try to push ourselves in any way we can.”
With STIGMA, that meant leaning into more industrial textures and opening the band up to a different kind of audience. It was a bold move, and one that brought plenty of victories. But when the band began thinking about new music again, the path forward came from somewhere closer to home.
“Our latest EP [It Calls Me By Name] was very much themed around Florida and the swamp,” Cody recalls.
“That clearly needed to be a heavy turn for us, just because of where we’re from and the logistics of gators and swamps. We can’t be putting out songs with clean vocals about gators!”
“I think Landfall is a really nice split down the middle,” he continues.
“It’s got a lot of very heavy moments, but I also think it has some of our most melodic tracks yet. Landfall to me is truly the best of the best for our band.”
With the EP lighting the creative fuse that would explode into album six, that “best of the best” mentality runs through every corner of Landfall. Whether you found Wage War through Blueprints, through Manic, through STIGMA, or through the sheer force of their recent singles, there is something here that speaks to every version of the band while still pushing the whole thing nicely forward.
In fact, even the title feels like a statement about the scale of this chapter in Wage War’s journey. Referencing the moment a storm reaches land after gathering force over water, Landfall carries a sense of something huge and wholly uncontrollable approaching. Heavy, melodic and volatile all at once, it’s a collection of songs that reckon with pressure, uncertainty and the strange powerlessness that comes with watching certain events unfold.
Part of what gives the record its impact is the fact that, for the first time, Cody took the reins as producer for Wage War.
“You have those jump-off-the-cliff moments in your life where you’re either gonna fly or fall,” he shrugs.
“Thankfully the other four guys had a lot of confidence in me and empowered me to do it. Over the years, I’ve gotten to work with some amazing producers, and I’ve been able to study and learn their processes. It was a lot of work, with not a lot of time to work with, but it felt great to have this as my first effort.”
Admitting that he’s harder on his own band than he would be on any other, the level of scrutiny applied to that process meant songs could sit in folders for months, sometimes years, changing shape until they finally became what they needed to be. ‘Figure 8’ is a perfect example. Originally recorded around the time the band were working on the EP, it did not fit that project thematically, so Cody went back to the drawing board.
“It used to be a much different song,” he says.
“It was almost a four-on-the-floor, clubby kind of thing. It sounded like a modern rock song that you would hear on Octane or something.”
After seeing how well ‘Blindfold’ connected - a track that bridged older metalcore energy with the band’s more melodic tendencies - Cody reworked ‘Figure 8’ completely.
“Now it dances, and obviously it’s a melodic song, but it still has super heavy riffs. It’s much more interesting than it used to be in a musical sense.”
That balance of melody and heaviness is the beating heart of Landfall, and nowhere is it more immediate than on ‘Sweet Dreams’. A track that certainly isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, it hits so hard because it understands what Wage War do best and delivers it with complete and utter conviction.
“Cody had the working title ‘Wage Wagyu’ for that one,” Briton grins.
“It is what we do on 10,” Cody adds.
“It’s riffy, it’s heavy, it’s melodic… It just does the Wage War thing. It doesn’t break any new ground, and we’re aware of that. But if you are a Wage War fan, that’s a song for you.”
Elsewhere, the band do push into less familiar emotional territory. ‘Stay With Me’ is, in the simplest terms, a Wage War love song - a phrase that may sound strange until you hear how naturally it fits within the album’s wider scope.
“It’s hard not to hit the cheese metre on love songs, for sure. It’s our sixth record though, and we can only write so many songs about gators,” Cody laughs.
“It’s not a gushy love song. There’s this sentiment of feeling undeserving of the love that you’re receiving, but it’s also about acknowledging a person who has made a huge difference to your life, whether that’s a romantic thing, a friendship, or whatever else. It’s not saying, ‘you complete me’, it’s more like ‘you’re essential for me to survive’.”
That ability to effortlessly transition from vulnerability to pure violence is what gives Landfall its range, and at the opposite end of the scale sits ‘Silk’. Three minutes of unrestrained metallic punishment, built from riffs that threaten to bash your skull in, it collides old-school chaos with flashes of brutality into something that feels both absurd and exhilarating.
“We’re all metalheads at the end of the day,” Briton says.
“We’re also just in a place of freedom in terms of doing what we want,” Cody adds.
“That ended up being one of my favourite songs on the record. It takes you through every kind of riff possible. There are hardcore riffs, metalcore riffs… There’s a bunch of stuff in there.”
With Briton referring to the track as a “riff safari” for that exact reason, it’s an example of the sense of freedom coursing through Wage War right now. Over fifteen years into their career, that comes from something deeper than simply knowing they can still write the heaviest songs. Right now, more than ever, that comes from Wage War feeling secure in what they are. From forgetting about proving that their band deserves a place in the conversation and just focusing on exactly what they bring to it.
“It’s about looking inward instead of thinking about what’s cool right now. It’s just about being ourselves,” Briton nods.
“We’re more aware than ever of what it is that we do well. Every record should be a fair balance between doing what you do well and also making space to grow. I think we did that particularly well on this record.”
That mentality is a huge reason why Wage War sound hungrier than ever on Landfall, and that hunger comes from the same thing that has kept the same five members moving together since the beginning: belief in the band, belief in one another, and a desire to keep pushing while they still can.
“This band has already gone way farther than any of us thought that it would,” Cody nods.
“I think it all comes down to a love of the game,” Briton adds.
“A lot of bands get burnt out at this stage, but we’ve never wanted more out of a record than we do for this one. We want to tour on it as much as we can, we want to play as many shows as we can, and we want to share it as much as we can.”
A band who know that the strongest statement they can make is to simply be themselves at full force, after years of evolution, experimentation and expansion, Wage War have arrived at a point that feels both definitive and wide open. Planting their flag and stepping into the storm with absolute intent, Landfall is Wage War in their purest incarnation – and it’s absolutely glorious.
“We’ve watched a bunch of bands shoot up and crash down, but we’ve always done our thing and kept a steady incline,” Cody finishes.
“I think we all see a path forward for this to be our lasting legacy, so we’re chasing that at full speed. We’ve still got the same five guys that we’ve had since the band’s inception, and we know that’s a rare thing to be able to say. It says a lot about who we are to each other and the brotherhood that we have.”
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Trekking in support of Landfall, Wage War will set out on the Emergency Broadcast tour this fall along with support from We Came As Romans, Varials, and Cane Hill. The tour begins October 25th in San Antonio, TX and wraps with a Florida homecoming in Orlando on November 27th. A complete list of confirmed dates can be found below. Get tickets - HERE
Landfall, the new album from Wage War is now available via Fearless Records. Get the album - HERE
WAGE WAR EMERGENCY BROADCAST TOUR DATES
10/25 — San Antonio, TX — The Aztec Theatre
10/26 — Houston, TX — White Oak Music Hall
10/29 — Las Vegas, NV — House of Blues
10/30 — Tempe, AZ — Marquee Theatre
10/31 — Riverside, CA — Riverside Municipal Auditorium
11/2 — Albuquerque, NM — Revel Entertainment Center
11/3 — Oklahoma City, OK — Diamond Ballroom
11/4 — Kansas City, MO — Uptown Theater
11/6 — Madison, WI — The Sylvee
11/7 — St. Louis, MO — The Pageant
11/8 — Columbus, OH — KEMBA Live!
11/10 — Indianapolis, IN — Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
11/11 — Cincinnati, OH — The Andrew J Brady Music Center
11/13 — Wallingford, CT — The Dome at Toyota Oakdale Theatre
11/14 — Sayreville, NJ — Starland Ballroom
11/16 — Toronto, ON — HISTORY
11/17 — Buffalo, NY — Buffalo RiverWorks
11/18 — Huntington, NY — The Paramount
11/20 — Silver Spring, MD — The Fillmore
11/21 — Philadelphia, PA — Franklin Music Hall
11/22 — Norfolk, VA — The NorVa
11/24 — Nashville, TN — Marathon Music Works
11/25 — Charlotte, NC — The Fillmore
11/27 — Orlando, FL — Hard Rock Live
