EP REVIEW: It Calls Me By Name – Wage War
Florida metalcore outfit, WAGE WAR have been a fairly active band over the last ten years. Most recently popping up on the excellent latest ARCHITECTS album. Their last release was Stigma back in 2024, but now they’re back with their latest EP, It Calls Me By Name, a bruising and uncompromising work that leaves no prisoners as it takes your eardrums to the limit. While it may be short, it indeed makes a statement that the band aren’t out for the count just yet, but are solidifying their status as one of the more exciting metalcore bands that are around currently.
Opening track, Song Of The Swamp wastes no time launching us into the fray. A soundscape of swamp noise opens up and not before long, Briton Bond’s growling vocals are heard before sending us into the swirling cavalcade of wonderful metalcore music as their EP takes us all by the figurative nuts and doesn’t let go. The circle pit inducing song leaves no prisoners and sounds like a bruise looks as it does indeed feel like it is waging war. It’s one hell of an opener as you feel each beat, each scream and each riff rattling around your body and leaves you feeling like you’ve gone ten rounds in a boxing ring, and this is just the first track. 4×4 follows and has a nice little guitar noodling about, you may think you’re in for a lighter sounding track, but listener (or reader), you are wrong. It may not seem possible, but somehow, the intensity is turned up even further for this track than its predecessor. It’s a dark track that does give a SLIPKNOT vibe as it could easily take any of their tracks head on in terms of quality. It’s hands down the best track on the EP and leaves its mark long after you have listened to it.
At the halfway point, we are greeted with Blindfold which is one of the more atmospheric tracks of the EP. A foreboding tune starts off the track with clean lyrics that work alongside the atmosphere the song is giving. It slowly builds up to a massive track that shows a more vulnerable side to WAGE WAR that creates a beautiful dichotomy to the aggressive nature that we started off with. It shows the band going from strength to strength throughout listening and you almost resent them for not releasing a full album, but that’s what makes this EP so good. The penultimate track combines all the sounds we have heard in the lead up. Karma is an almost groove metal sounding track that combines hip-hop sounds, clean and harsh lyrics with music that sounds like how a bruise looks. It may feel like too many cooks but WAGE WAR never goes over the top with it and goes from strength to strength to create something truly powerful sounding. Our short listen comes to an end with Purify. A swirling wall of sound that shows WAGE WAR aren’t fucking about and ending on a softer note, they mean to end as they started, with no holds barred as they deliver an all out assault on the senses right at the end. Once again, you bemoan the fact that in an EP you’re listening to as you could have done with several more tracks to listen to, but we make do with what we have, and what we do have is stunning as it sees the whole band firing on all cylinders, ending on a beautiful sounding scream from Briton Bond.
When it comes to metalcore in 2026, you won’t find much better than WAGE WAR‘s It Calls Me By Name. This short but effective EP leaves its mark on 2026 and raises the bar high for other metalcore bands to follow. The unrelenting gargantuan nature creates a monster and it being only an EP keeps this monster chained. A full album will surely unleash it, and hopefully that is what we get sooner rather than later.
Rating: 9/10
It Calls Me By Name is out now via Fearless Records.
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