Two years on from their last full length release, Stigma, Wage War have returned with their EP, It Calls Me By Name, determined to prove that they still possess the weighted heat that they were praised for on their first two releases.
If you’re open to bands evolving their sound as they progress through their career, stick around. If you stand firm on the belief that bands should stick to the sound they had in their debut, you might be disappointed. The only single to be released before the drop, ‘Song of the Swamp’, perfectly encapsulates the tone they were aiming for. It’s jagged, and not like the line you try to draw when under pressure, but like a ripsaw that cuts violently through the peace that preceded. From beginning to end, this is a track that enters with hostility and a “take no prisoners” mantra. It’s unapologetically aggressive, and laced with panic chords that join forces with pick scrapes to attack the nerves of whoever dares to listen. Some have said this is heavy for the sake of being heavy, but it’s so much more than that when it was designed to become the embodiment of the nature and wildlife that cover the land of Florida, the state which the band hails from. This idea has been executed to a high creative standard, granting an audible assistant to allow for envisioning the music in visual form, not only on the entry track, but throughout the entire EP.
Co-writer and clean vocalist, Cody Quistad, hasn’t hidden in the shadows, which would’ve made sense if the band were going full send into the heaviest end of their spectrum. The tracks ‘Blindfold’ and ‘Karma’ open the space for his easily recognisable voice to be heard, delivering those catchy choruses that many listeners love because they flow effortlessly against the grit of the down-tuned guitars and ominous feel, seeping into the spaces between to shine a light through what otherwise might seem like a dark release. They add a sincerity to the EP that it would otherwise fall short in terms of excitement without.
“It’s unapologetically aggressive, and laced with panic chords that join forces with pick scrapes to attack the nerves of whoever dares to listen.”
Mixing clean and harsh vocals has always worked so well for Wage War, and while it remains to be the case for the majority of this release, it unfortunately misses the mark on ‘4×4’, one of 3 tracks without clean vocals. The reason for this is not because of the lack of singalong opportunities, but rather because it opens with a riff almost identical to another that is very popular in the modern metalcore space. Certainly, bands rework riffs all the time, but add in a similar chanting of closely themed lyrics and it voids the track of any and all possibility of being seen as anything other than a 2.0.
Take this EP for what it is, a way of delivering the band’s roots in audible form, honing in on their original sound while adding the modern touches that they’ve upskilled on over the past few releases. Pizza always tastes better when it’s been left out on the counter overnight, and that’s exactly what to expect when listening to It Calls Me By Name. While it might not click on first listen, it needs to be left alone to marinate before it’s revisited. Only then will it settle into the wires in your brain with its infectious hooks and gritty riffs, then it’ll creep out from the corners of your mind, feeding back into your nervous system when you least expect it.