Review Summary: Blueprints is a stellar debut that pairs relentlessly aggressive vocals with soaring choruses and catchy, groovy riffs.
Wage War is another new addition to the ever-growing Fearless roster. Their debut album Blueprints was released a week early on Apple Music and is set for release on November 27th at all other retailers. So how does Wage War’s debut album stand among the constantly growing metalcore genre? Quite well.
The album starts off with a blistering and heavy intro track which transitions perfectly into “Twenty One”, one of their first singles. “Twenty One” highlights one of Wage Wars greatest strengths on the album, which is the duality of clean choruses mixed in with crunching heaviness. It also has some of my favorite lines such as “All along we’ve been searching for a place to call our home. You and I will never learn if we try to do this on our own” or “Underneath it all we are all the same. Never knowing where to go. Lost in our way. Can we ever escape? Can we decide our fate?” Next up on the docket is “Alive.”, which was the first single released by the band. It’s not hard to see why they chose to release this song first. It’s a ruthless, hard hitting song that has some serious groove and bouncy riffs and is sure to get the crowd on their feet. Alive is still one of my personal favorites off the album.
The album continues on with its backbreaking pace with songs like “Blueprints” and “Youngbloods” both of which feature the soaring choruses and heavy hitting sound that Wage War skillfully employs. “Youngbloods” is easily the highlight of the album. It has heavy and catchy breakdowns that is sure to get any live crowd on their feet. It also features probably the best clean chorus out of all the songs on the album. It’s emotionally charged and it’s hard not to want to sing along to yourself. “Youngbloods” touches on the tragic suicide of a personal friend. You can feel their emotion seeping through every line and the song is a beautiful tribute to a friend/loved one.
The album kicks it up a couple notches, with the next 3 songs, “Deadlocked”, “Enemy” and the venom filled “Spineless.” being the heaviest on the album. They pick up the pace considerably and are sure to incite some brutal mosh pits. The next song, “Basic Hate”, is an unrelenting smasher that is fueled with pure angst. This is evident with lines such as “There will be hell to pay, may you burn forever.” The album ends with “Desperate”, which is a song with anthematic choruses, undeniably catchy riffs and the unrelenting level of aggression you have come to expect from Wage War.
Blueprints is a stellar debut that pairs relentlessly aggressive vocals, soaring choruses and catchy, groovy riffs. It’s hard to believe this is their debut because this is an album you would expect from a band with couple albums already under their belt. Andrew Wade killed it on the production and leaves the final product sounding crisp, clean while still hitting you harder than a sledgehammer. If you aren’t familiar with Wage War then now is your chance to rectify that grievous error.
Attribution: http://www.soundfiction.net/2015/11/25/album-review-wage-war-blueprints/
