Wage War “Stigma”
Floridian’s Wage War are aiming to stick a landing when fifth album Stigma dropped yesterday. Before we get to the music, there’s something about the title, Stigma that gets me thinking. The idea of disapproval from people is something that seems to hit Wage War recently and from reading some reviews on this album already, this is still sticking. Yet why?
They are not making albums for me, or a fellow stuck up reviewer, the level of ego behind that is insane. They are making albums primarily for themselves and for you, the fans. So, we should be listening at this as fans, not musical snobbery as a failed musician.
And it’s as a fan of Wage War that this album comes into its own. Opening with the teasing title of The Show’s About To Start – and closing with a book ending Is This How It Ends, I love the parallel of that – the album is full of punchy riffs, anthemic choruses and beats that will get the pit exploding.
That opening track could be in the basement of an European nightclub as it builds, the suspense of knowing a metal band is about to drop a riff and when it does, it swings and pops. Self Sacrifice doesn’t let the pace drop, it pounds and I’m pretty sure there is little nod to Slayer in some of that guitar work.
There is a dub beat underneath Nail5 which grooves, not dissimilar to Manic but slower, dingier, dirtier while Tombstone grabs you by throat and rips your head off in a barrage of blast beats that you know is a circle pit waiting to happen when it slows on that groove.
There are the slower, radio friendly tracks in Magnetic, Blur and Hellbent, all of them complete with a big catchy chorus as the dynamics to the more mellow verses. All of them cigarette lighter worthy.
By the time Happy Hunting drops, straight after putting your head back on after Tombstone, something starts to become apparent. This is a metal band who plays dance music. Not like Electric Callboy who are a dance band who play metal. This is heavier, angrier, more aggressive. It’s Electric Callboy’s bigger brother and quite frankly they demand that you dance, get wild and mosh. Or else.
This becomes apparent again during In My Blood which imprints visuals of an arena clapping long before going apocalyptic during the track.
There may be a Stigma around the band and their music however why? It has big riffs that you can head bang too, breakdowns to mosh too, choruses to pour your heart out to and a collection of tracks that will become gargantuan when played live, whether on your stereo or at venue near you. The fans will love it.
Album Review By Iain McCallum
