Florida metalcore outfit WAGE WAR have released the video for "Sweet Dreams," a brand-new standalone single that follows hot on the heels of their "It Calls Me By Name" EP, issued earlier this year via Fearless Records.
That EP was a deliberately vicious record — a batch of songs where the band leaned hard into the most brutal corner of its sound — and "Sweet Dreams" keeps the trajectory intact. Despite the title, this is less a lullaby than the soundtrack to a nightmare: loud, fast and bloodcurdling, built for listeners who want the volume to hurt a little. But WAGE WAR are too smart to trade in pure bluster. Melodic vocals land square in the middle of the maelstrom, buying a moment of breathing room before the band slams the door shut again — a sharp piece of dynamic writing that has become one of the group's calling cards.
"'Sweet Dreams' is a song about being deceived by the world around you," the band explains. "About safety in a sense of blissful ignorance. Sonically, it draws inspiration from all of our previous work over the last 10 years."
That last line is not marketing filler. The track genuinely reads as a summary of where WAGE WAR have been: the snarling breakdowns of the early material, the hook-writing instincts sharpened across the middle records, and the widescreen heaviness of 2024's "Stigma." Past and present collide into something that still manages to sound new.
The current lineup — Briton Bond (lead vocals), Cody Quistad (rhythm guitar, clean vocals), Seth Blake (lead guitar), Chris Gaylord (bass) and Stephen Kluesener (drums) — will take the new material back to U.S. stages this fall. The "Emergency Broadcast" headline tour opens October 25 in San Antonio, Texas and wraps November 27 in Orlando, Florida, with WE CAME AS ROMANS, VARIALS and CANE HILL supporting across all 24 dates, including stops in Las Vegas, Kansas City, Toronto, Philadelphia and Nashville.
Since debut full-length "Blueprints" arrived in 2015, WAGE WAR have built a catalogue of five studio albums out of snarling breakdowns and infectious hooks, with lyrics that keep circling mental health, introspection and sheer endurance. They took the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart with "Magnetic," then went the other way entirely with "It Calls Me By Name" — a set of songs shaped by Florida, the swamp and the relentless aggression of nature. On the evidence of "Sweet Dreams," the band has no plans to come up for air.