Warped Tour can take years off your life! This week’s guest on Discover New Music is Cody Quistad of Wage War. The band’s fifth studio release “Stigma”, according to Cody, is a complete collection on what the band has aimed to accomplish over the years. When it comes to Wage War, this album is as Wage War as it gets! Plus, Cody plays a quick round of Rapid Fire…and Bigfoot is a cult leader?!?!
In order to grow, we shed the weight of previous expectations and stretch beyond our potential.
Traveling a constant forward trajectory at lightspeed, Wage War not only push their own sound forward, but they also propel heavy music into new territory. The Florida quintet—Briton Bond [lead vocals], Cody Quistad [rhythm guitar, clean vocals], Seth Blake [lead guitar], Chris Gaylord [bass], and Stephen Kluesener [drums]—have always tempered a pummeling metallic onslaught with unshakable melodies. On their fifth full-length offering STIGMA [Fearless Records], they outfit this signature style with industrial grit and electronic sheen, leveling up into the future in the process.
“We made a record that is authentic and true to us, first of all,” notes Cody. “Secondly, it breaks boundaries sonically and lyrically and moves the genre forward. It’s a statement. We’re stepping out, breaking free from whatever subgenre we fit into, and saying something. We make the music we want to make. STIGMA is special, because it resonates beyond the genre labels we’ve been often categorized with.”
A near-decade grind naturally brought Wage War to this point. They have unleashed a string of fan favorite albums, including Blueprints [2015], Deadweight [2017], Pressure [2019], and Manic [2021]. Beyond looks from SPIN, Modern Drummer, American Songwriter, Revolver, Guitar World, and more, KERRANG! hailed the latter as “their greatest album yet,” and DORK raved, “It’s an embracing of being metalheads, popheads and just fans of good songs. On more than one occasion, there’s an earworm poking its head up through the dirt.” They also put up numbers, tallying hundreds of millions of streams boosted by the likes of “Stitch,” “Low,” “Manic,” and “Circle The Drain.”
Between selling out tour dates worldwide, they crafted what would become STIGMA with producer Drew Fulk [Disturbed, Motionless In White].
This time around, they nodded to inspirations a la Rammstein, Static-X, and Powerman 5000, busting out the synthesizers in the sessions. Another first, they watched movies in the studio such as The Matrix, Blade, and Tombstone.
“It was like a live mood board, if you will,” says Cody. “We’d change the lighting, watch a movie, and listen back. We were wondering, ‘What would all of those 90s industrial nu metal bands sound like in 2024?’ So, we decided to incorporate the riffs and synths into our sound to make it fresh.”
“Cody and I have always been huge fans of industrial metal,” adds Briton. “We finally put the pen to paper and started writing this way. It was really natural for us.”
They herald STIGMA with the lead single “MAGNETIC.” Emotional vocals warble through a glitchy haze on the verses until a thick stomp gives way to a chantable chorus, “Try to push away, but I’m right back at it. You and me are always gonna be magnetic.”
“I had an idea to make a melodic Wage War song with ethereal guitars,” recalls Cody. “It’s about how no matter what you do, you can never get beyond certain things. You run as far away as you can from an old relationship, family members, or habits, and you still feel tied together. It doesn’t matter how hard you try.”
“NAIL5” teeters on an axis between a deftly rhymed reprise and a distorted freakout. Wrapped in screeching synths, guitars seesaw in a seasick groove as Briton screams, “Let ‘em rot with the maggots!”
Cody comments, “For us, it’s a celebration of freedom and doing what we want to do. No matter what anyone says, we’re still here making records and doing our thing. It’s meant to be a wild ride.”
“‘NAIL5’ is a nod to ‘Stitch’ and ‘Manic’ at the same time,” Briton goes on. “It has this dark nursery rhyme, which is delivered like an underground rap. However, it ends with one of our heaviest breakdowns ever. It’s a wild ride.”
Elsewhere, “HAPPY HUNTING” storms out of the gate with an unapologetic sensory assault of danceable beats, guttural growls, and an unexpected electronic drop. “It’s the first industrial track I sent over,” recalls Cody. “It was the introduction to what we ended up doing. It’s chanty, and it has this energy where you’re jumping up and down the whole time.”
“It’s one of my favorites,” smiles Briton. “It bridges the gap from the beginning of the album to the end. It touches bases on all of the themes and sounds we were going for.”
Then, there’s “BLUR.” Keyboards glimmer through a neck-snapping riff as the chorus echoes, “Feels like it’s all a blur.”
“It’s a modern take on Wage War,” Cody observes. “It’s an ode to the past, but a look at the future. In terms of the lyrics, it’s about waking up one day and having a moment where you think, ‘How did I get here? Who have I become?’ It’s very introspective.”
The trip concludes with “Is This How It Ends,” illuminating another side of the STIGMA.
“It’s about the dichotomy of lovers to strangers,” Cody reveals. “You’re closer than you’ve ever been with somebody, and the bottom falls out. All of a sudden, you’re strangers. The title says it all. It’s the big epic closer.”
In the end, Wage War actualize their potential completely on STIGMA.
“There’s a song for pretty much every emotion on the record,” concludes Cody. “You can dance, mosh, or headbang to it. If you want to vibe and reflect, you can. I hope you listen to it, have some fun, and feel like you’re not alone.”
“We really love this record,” Briton states. “Everyone was pushing 110%, and it shows.”
Traveling a constant forward trajectory at lightspeed, Wage War not only push their own sound forward, but they also propel heavy music into new territory. The Florida quintet—Briton Bond [lead vocals], Cody Quistad [rhythm guitar, clean vocals], Seth Blake [lead guitar], Chris Gaylord [bass], and Stephen Kluesener [drums]—have always tempered a pummeling metallic onslaught with unshakable melodies. A near-decade grind naturally brought Wage War to this point. They have unleashed a string of fan favorite albums, including Blueprints [2015], Deadweight [2017], Pressure [2019], and Manic [2021]. Beyond looks from SPIN, Modern Drummer, American Songwriter, Revolver, Guitar World, and more, KERRANG! hailed the latter as “their greatest album yet,” and DORK raved, “It’s an embracing of being metalheads, popheads and just fans of good songs. On more than one occasion, there’s an earworm poking its head up through the dirt.” They also put up numbers, tallying hundreds of millions of streams boosted by the likes of “Stitch,” “Low,” “Manic,” and “Circle The Drain.” On their fifth full-length offering STIGMA [Fearless Records], Wage War outfit their signature style with industrial grit and electronic sheen, leveling up into the future in the process with singles such as “MAGNETIC.”
