Florida hard rock quintet WAGE WAR — Briton Bond [lead vocals], Cody Quistad [rhythm guitar, clean vocals], Seth Blake [lead guitar], Chris Gaylord [bass], and Stephen Kluesener [drums] — have shared the new song “Teeth.” It’s quite a rager.
“Teeth” appears on the band’s fourth full-length Manic, due out October 1 on Fearless Records. Pre-order it here.
“‘Teeth’ is the first taste of some of the new sonic territory on Manic,” the band says. “We wanted to experiment with some different sounds and production and see what we could do. ‘Teeth’ is simply about a toxic, one-sided relationship. We’ve all had them — and this is [about] a cutting of those ties.”
On Manic, the band masterfully strikes a delicate and well-crafted balance of grooves, riffs, melodies, and electronic flourishes.
After amassing nearly 300 million streams and receiving widespread acclaim from Billboard, Loudwire, Modern Drummer, American Songwriter, Alternative Press, and more, the group delivered 11 anthems meant to connect through turbulence.
“Manic encompasses everything we’ve gone through as musicians in the last year-and-a-half,” says Kluesener. “The whole industry halted, and we technically lost our jobs. Our scene was among the first to leave and the last to come back. The album captures the whole period.”
Quistad pulls back the curtain even more, saying, “Mania is a wild emotion. The last year was all severe highs and lows. We had some victories, but we’ve also had so many low points. We’ve built this thing for the last 10 years and put all of our chips into it. We’ve missed birthdays and funerals, but we’ve done some extraordinary things. Last year, we found ourselves wondering if it would ever come back. That’s really what the album is about.”
Ultimately, Manic is a triumph and a definitive artistic statement for Wage War. It represents the apex of an intense creative journey. They built a diehard audience with Blueprints [2015] and Deadweight [2017] and through incessant touring. 2019’s Pressure exploded right out of the gate. “Low” piled on 24.9 million Spotify streams with “Who I Am” at 10.7 million Spotify streams and “Me Against Myself” at 8.4 million Spotify streams. Beyond bringing their total stream tally past a-quarter-of-a-billion, it landed on Loudwire’s “50 Best Metal Albums of 2019,”while Billboard praised the album’s levity. American Songwriter called attention to the evolution of the band’s songwriting and sound, while New Noise Magazine awarded it 4-out-of-5 stars. Elsewhere, Alternative Press raved, “Wage War are unapologetically changing the game on all fronts on Pressure.”
Wage War will hit the road this summer with Beartooth and Dragged Under. All dates are below.
MANIC TRACK LISTING:
“Relapse”
“Teeth”
“Manic”
“High Horse“
“Circle the Drain“
“Godspeed”
“Death Roll”
“Slow Burn”
“Never Said Goodbye”
“True Colors”
“If Tomorrow Never Comes”
WAGE WAR ON TOUR:
WITH BEARTOOTH + DRAGGED UNDER:
9/15 — New York, NY — Terminal 5
9/17 — Worcester, MA — Palladium
9/18 — Baltimore, MD — Sound Stage
9/19 — New Haven, CT — Toad’s Place
9/20 — Pittsburgh, PA — Stage AE
9/22 — Chicago, IL — House of Blues
9/24 — Detroit, MI — St. Andrews Hall
9/25 — Grand Rapids, MI — 20 Monroe Live
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