Florida-based metalcore powerhouse Wage War have scaled things back a little bit, releasing a full acoustic album featuring stripped versions of some of their more popular tracks. The new record is titled The Stripped Sessions, and it showcases how musically versatile the group really is.
Wage War is no stranger to releasing acoustic tracks, as they had released a stripped version of their track “Johnny Cash” off of their 2017 album Deadweight. Because of the popularity of the stripped version of not only that song, but countless other acoustic performances for various radio stations and intimate crowds, Wage War fans have been calling for an acoustic album for quite some time now.
They dropped an acoustic version of their radio hit “Circle The Drain” off of their 2021 release Manic in December of 2021, re-firing the desire from fans to drop a full acoustic album. Now, The Stripped Sessions EP has arrived with stripped versions of tracks off of Wage War’s three most recent albums. Hits including “Prison”, “Godspeed”, “Slow Burn”, and “Gravity” join previously released acoustic tracks “Johnny Cash” and “Circle The Drain” in a 11 song, 37 minute musical experience.
When we spoke with Wage War vocalists Cody Quistad and Briton Bond earlier this year, we asked about stripped versions of songs and they told us that it wasn’t really anything they ever expected fans to go crazy over.
“When it comes to stripped stuff, we kinda just did it for us, we weren’t really expecting our fans to be into that. Because up until that point people just liked that fact that we played breakdowns and stuff. We did our first one which was ‘Johnny Cash’, and it went over really well and I think it’s like, a top five song for us all time on Spotify.”
Cody goes on to talk about how different genres help fuel the acoustic tracks.
“We all love different styles of music. Me and Briton in particular are big country music fans, and so being able to take things back to acoustics and some slide guitar stuff, that’s something that is fun for us. It’s almost like re-dressing the song, you know what I mean? You get to feel what the bare bones of the song are like without the production and the electronics and stuff you know, like this is a bare bones five-piece band song.”
Our full interview with Cody and Briton can be viewed at the bottom of the page. Check out the full acoustic album album below!
Wage War is currently on an acoustic theater tour with metalcore pioneers A Day To Remember. Both bands are putting on intimate acoustic sets in various theaters across the United States, not the kind of venue you would typically find these acts in. The tour is stopping through Chicago at The Chicago Theater on December 12th later on this year.
