Read Wage War ’Landfall’ | The Album Story below:

(Click ‘View Fullscreen’ for digital feature or scroll down for text only version)

TEXT ONLY:

Everywhere you go, you carry a little piece of where you are from, whether you like it or not. From there, it then becomes a matter of whether you wear those elements with pride or push them down.

Wage War have never hidden from their roots. Proudly Floridian and rising from the thriving Ocala scene, their journey continues to show what happens when you conquer not only your back garden but also set out to make sure the whole world knows your name.

Though after a year of heavy touring, playing in arenas across the globe with legends of the games such as Breaking Benjamin and Papa Roach, that call of home started to get a little bit stronger. And so, when it came time to decide on the next step, the sweet song of the swamp was way too loud to ignore.

“Everyone knows us as the Florida band, but what if we really did it,” Guitarist and vocalist Cody Quistad poses. “We’ve been teasing it for a while. We had ‘Death Roll’ on [2021’s] ‘Manic’, which was super gator-themed, and then on [2024’s] ‘STIGMA’ we had ‘In My Blood’, which was like Nickelback worship in the form of a Florida song. It’s fun, and it’s easy, and it’s something we like to do anyway, so we went further down that rabbit hole.”

That journey started with ‘IT CALLS ME BY NAME’, a five-track EP released earlier this year that indulges in the dank and the danger of the wetlands that have surrounded the band all their life. It concludes with ‘Landfall’, a full-length that takes the Citrus State’s influence to a whole new level and delivers it in a way you can’t ignore.

A frantic, furious and filthy dive into the depths, it also finds Wage War at their most commanding and corrosive. A pitch-black blend of everything that they have mastered up to this point, executed with an even sharper precision and power, it is a record that is so much more than a tribute to the acres that raised them. It is a statement of savage intent, a crushing realisation of what it means to reach the very peak of heavy music’s power and make sure everyone knows you have the credentials to control it.

THE LYRICS

With most of what Wage War have done over the course of their career, they wanted to make sure that when it came to penning lyrics for ‘Landfall’, they actually meant something. So, by going all in on the Florida heat, they knew they could run wild and free with what they were describing. And with that, they could open the door on the sides of the state that so often get left behind.

“People think of Florida, and they think of Disney World or Miami or beaches or whatever, and that’s just not the part of Florida that we’re from,” Cody explains. “We shot the ‘Song of the Swamp’ video in the Ocala National Forest, which is 30 minutes East of where we’re all from, and like that is the reality of the Florida that we grew up in.

“We really wanted to put our flag down on who we are and give people something that they can sink their teeth into, to separate us from being the five dudes in black T-shirts playing breakdowns. And I think it covers a lot of ground because of that.”

On the surface, the band has succeeded in injecting the realities of life in the Sunshine State into their sound, but the beauty is that their depictions aren’t exclusive to their experience.

Take the title track, which uses imagery of the hurricane and its impending destruction to ramp up the intensity tenfold. Yet look a little closer, and it is more about the fact that we are all doomed no matter what, and no matter how prepared you are for catastrophe, it will still knock you off your feet. ‘Sweet Dreams’ is, on the one hand, about what it means to ponder what is possible to achieve when you come from a place like this, and on the other, a chance for the band to take aim at those above in power whom we cannot trust now more than ever. And ‘Stay With Me’, as much a love song readymade for many a first dance as it is a reminder that the place that raised you sticks within you no matter where in this vast world you travel.

Every song exists for a reason, and every sentiment within comes from a place that actually means the world to the band. It’s easier than ever to hide who you are at your core, put on a disguise, shun your roots for something more palatable, and go about life however suits you. But wearing your journey on your sleeve, spiders and gators in tow, is something to be commended. And letting everybody see them, warts and all, fits with Cody’s biggest intention for Wage War in 2026.

“Intentionality is definitely the word for this year. We want people to look back on this year in the span of Wage War and almost feel that there is a momentum shift. That we really like found ourselves. That this is who Wage War is. And that comes from pulling on the manner that we grew up and being inspired by what’s around us, but also pulling on what’s within us, too. And the payoff already feels huge.”

THE SOUND

A big part of that pursuit of intentionality that Cody holds onto so tightly came from the process of
fine-tuning the band’s sound as well as sentiment. And within that came a moment he’s personally been building toward for most of Wage War’s career. Beyond his usual role in songwriting, this was the first time he stepped up to the plate and handled production on one of the band’s records. Taking even more ownership of making sure everything aligns with who they are and what they want to be, Cody approached the situation with as much fear as excitement.

“I was scared to do it at first. I’ve done it for other bands and artists, and I know I’m capable, but doing it for my own band and my own child felt daunting. I’ve been so fortunate to work alongside a lot of great producers, and they’ve really empowered and encouraged me as well. It kind of came down to if we wanted to get this done in the time that we wanted to get this done, it had to be me.”

The prospect of putting 16 songs in total, across ‘Landfall’ and ‘IT CALLS ME BY NAME’, to the sword in such a short time is enough to send any artist’s blood pressure rocketing. But as Cody continues to say, a feeling that will resonate with anyone who has put their passion at the forefront of their life: “What a blessing it is to be crushed by the things that we once prayed for”.

With that in mind, no stone has been left unturned to make sure ‘Landfall’ feels like the definitive Wage War experience. The best of their chaos and catharsis, their most melodic and mayhem-driven elements, exist in harmony and are ramped up to 11 for good measure.

The result is an unrelentingly murky experience. ‘Song Of The Swamp’ and ‘Silk’ are mercilessly heavy, bolstered by a darkness pulled straight out of the Everglades, while ‘Way Of Pain’ and ‘R3D DOT’ follow the paths the band have already carved out on previous releases to guide their devastation. On the other side of the coin, ‘Figure 8’ is as crystalline and polished as it is dream-like and woozy, whilst ‘Silence Has Spoken’ is as gorgeously considered as it gets.

More than anything, it sounds like Wage War and nobody else. That intent guided Cody throughout the process more than anything else, and he looks to it as a huge source of pride.

“There’s a handful of bands that are just massive right now and crushing it, but I don’t want to sound anything like them,” he laughs. “I really wanted to make sure that what we are doing is our thing. Chasing something down that feels fresh. That’s why I wanted it to sound polished, but I also wanted it to sound aggressive and gritty and dark. Have a bit more of a live element to it than maybe some of the other Wage War records have had. But being unique was really important to me, and it feels really empowering for people to be loving it as much as they do because of that.”

A large part of this comes from the fact that, despite Wage War still being a young band in the grand scheme of things, they have gone from being influenced to being the influencers. They’re the kind of band those coming up look to for guidance, on the road or in the studio, and not taking that responsibility, with both hands, to make sure they are being the best version of themselves would be a disservice, to say the least.

“For a while, it just felt like we were the young guns. But it’s still crazy to have somebody come up to you that was listening to our band in high school. We’ve toured with a bunch of bands that I probably repeated that exact same sentence to, but to see the passing of the torch happening before our eyes, that’s really cool.”

THE TITLE AND ARTWORK

For ‘IT CALLS ME BY NAME’, the band went dark and mysterious; for ‘Landfall’, being direct and to the point felt like the order of the day. Instead of focusing on the swamps and the creatures that dwell within them, Cody and the gang considered the power and persistence of hurricanes and how they could properly incorporate such a destructive natural occurrence into the record.

Falling upon ‘Landfall’, it not only fits their love of two-syllable album titles, something that has been prominent on every release to date, but it also feels like they are describing something bigger than themselves. The same happens with the artwork. Rather than being in the eye of the storm, the technical photo between the bold title letters feels larger than life. The true weight of what the hurricane can do is allowed to exist, its potential realised in shades of burnt orange.

Compared to the intimate approach of ‘IT CALLS ME BY NAME’, which shows the darkened scales of the alligator’s back from a perspective not many live to tell the tale of, ‘Landfall’ brings it all together. It is all of Florida, celebrated as one.

“Having the EP come out first was like, ‘Oh, the boys really went Florida with it’, and then you zoom out and you get the full record,” Cody comments. “The full scope of Florida, the 30,000-foot view of what we have wanted to say.

 “We went through a bunch of iterations before this, though. We drew up a town that was decimated at one point, and another we were gonna play off the theme that the swamp was the storm, and so the town was like covered in vines and stuff. But we didn’t really find what we were looking for there; now I feel like it’s more of a statement piece.

 “This album could have almost been self-titled just with how much of our identity can be felt within it. We’ve never had something planned out so far where you can see the through line through everything, and that feels really good.”

THE FUTURE

By sticking such a fork in the road, in terms of who they are as much as who they have always been, Wage War put themselves in a really interesting position. As they continue to dominate bigger and bigger rooms and show everything they have learned to completely new audiences, it’s fair to say they have never felt more confident in what the band is and what it is capable of.

As Cody considers what is next, especially after such a career-defining process for him, it’s less about what Wage War will produce in the years to come and more about how they hope to be perceived. Throughout their career, they have been under microscope-level scrutiny, and everyone who listens to them has a wildly different opinion on who and what they should be.

Yet rather than getting bogged down in the comment sections, it feels like ‘Landfall’ has let Cody enjoy being part of the conversation. The comfort in Wage War looking, sounding, and feeling the way it does now is enough to keep him coming back for more, and if that inspires others to feel the same, then that is as good as it gets.

“Every single record that we have done, I’m so proud of,” Cody summarises. “And they’ve all been received differently. But I’m not going to make the same record twice. Like inevitably, whatever’s next is going to be different. But it feels good to be in this moment right now.

 “I’ve already started working on music mainly just because I always am, and I’m always being inspired by things that I hear. But now more than ever, I feel empowered to be us, and that is exciting. 

 “The world can be a very unkind place, and that’s okay, but I don’t think you should ever let it steer the way that you decide you want to create. All I’ve ever wanted is for people to like us for us, so it feels cool to create culture and have people care the way they do right now.”