Florida hard rock quartet Wage War connected on a global basis with their 2019 album Pressure, opening up a broader fan base and introducing countless new fans to their brand of hard rock.
The album and its singles had a combined Spotify stream tally of more than a quarter of a billion listens and propelled the release into Loudwire’s Top 50 Metal Albums of 2019.
Following up a success like that is never easy, but with their recent release Manic, Wage War have managed to recapture that magic while simultaneously unleashing an entirely new beast.
Manic is a collection of 11 tracks designed to connect through turbulence, and has landed at a time when turbulence is more the accepted normal than an unwanted distraction.
Clean vocalist/rhythm guitarist Cody Quistad joined HEAVY to talk about the album, starting with its early reception.
“It’s been crazy man,” he beamed. “Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever been this overwhelmed with positive feedback. People seem to be loving the album. We’ve certainly been on both sides of the coin, people praising everything you do and then people seemingly hating everything you do so it’s cool to be in a spot where everyone loves you again (laughs).”
With their recent success still very much in the forefront of fans – and the bands – minds, Quistad says although things didn’t change too much with the recording process for Manic, there were a few minor points which the band gave added attention to.
“I think we always have the same goal, and it sounds corny or whatever, but we always wanna write the best songs that we can,” he shrugged. “Not only just for our genre, but in general. Something that can go wherever. I wanted to diversify more than ever and the third thing is I wanted to give our band an identity on this record and not have anything where people can say it sounds like this band or something. Something where people are gonna go wow, this is fresh, this is new, and I think we seemingly achieved that. As always, putting out the best record possible at this moment in time.”
In the full interview, Cody runs us through Manic in more detail, why he feels this is the band’s strongest album yet, their slower and anthemic tracks on the album and why now is the right time to release them, the popularity of Pressure and why he thinks people connected with it, their recent tour with Beartooth, upcoming plans and more.
