Single Slam – Who I Am by Wage War (Pressure)

American metalcore mob, Wage War, have released a new single called Who I Am alongside details of their incoming album, Pressure.

Pressure is due to drop on the 30th of August via Fearless Records. It will be the Floridian metallers 3rd release and follows their 2017 album, Deadweight and their debut, 2015’s Blueprints. Wage War originally formed in 2010 under the name Empires. A few member changes saw them change their name to Wage War alongside signing up with Fearless Records.

There are 5 members of Wage War and 3 of those are the original founding members. Those founders are Briton Bond on vocals, Seth Blake and lead guitar and backing vocals and Cody Quistad on rhythm guitar and clean vocals. Joining them for the name change is Chris Gaylord on bass and backing vocals and Stephen Kluesener on the drums.

Who I Am is just over 3 and a half minutes long and is a pretty heavy but pretty typical metalcore track. It starts with a fading in guitar before a yell of “GO!” kicks everything off. Quick drums and a metallic riff hit hard with deep, growled vocals. It builds up to the chorus where the clean vocals come in. They are well sung and sit nicely over the slightly more melodic guitars. There are some nice growls and drops in the second verse. Little mid verse breakdowns work a treat. The second chorus ends into a chugging riff that builds into some roared vocals and we hit breakdown territory. The breakdown pulls no punches before we head back to the chorus and then into a gentler melodic ending that fades into electronica for no apparent reason.

Who I Am is good. It’s certainly heavy enough with solid riffs and expert drumming. I like the vocals a lot. The heavier side has loads of power and the cleans are dripping in emotion and not too whiney. I don’t really get the point of the electronica at the end though. Perhaps it will make more sense on the whole album? Aside from that, there is very little new on show here. You could say it is just another metalcore song and you would be right. On the other hand, metalcore done well is still cracking music and Who I Am is done well. Just another of the good metalcore songs then, I guess. That will do.

Speaking about Who I Am in a press release, the band said “Picking songs to release ahead of an album is always a difficult task but we chose ‘Who I Am’ to be the frontrunner. It’s ‘Wage War on 11.’ Lyrically, the song dives into the reality of the people who inevitably look down on you or talk down to the things you invest yourself in or who you try to be. We sometimes forget that we’re all human beings and we all feel and hurt.”

You can grab a copy of Who I Am on all the usual streaming platforms now. Preorder Pressure from Fearless Records, here and from Wage War here.

Wage War Links

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram – YouTube – Fearless Records