Album Review: Employed To Serve - Fallen Star
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Not content with being the driving forces behind one of the UK’s most exciting record label with Church Road Records, Sammy Urwin and Justine Jones are the fulcrum of one of the country’s most successful modern metal bands. Following on from the 2021 monolith that is Conquering, Woking’s Employed to Serve is just about to unleash album number five, ten years after the debut, Greyer Than You Remember.
Much has happened in the four years since the last record, but Fallen Star picks up where Conquering left off with eleven slices of extremity served up the way only EtS know how.
It all kicks off in an orderly fashion, with Treachery opening up against a massive death-thrash assault. Justine’s screams, snarls and growls are a world away from the elegant princess of Fallen Star’s promotional shots. Edgy and fractured riffs, with a big breakdown and dual vocals give the piece a modern, yet classic sounding vibe; it’s a fist-in-the-face, straightforward opener to what is quite a varied, mature record.
The title track arrives with a piano, giving way to some solid grooves and choppy guitar. It’s a full-bodied, modern, multi-faceted metal anthem, emotive and operatic and full of Killswitch Engage energy. Breaks Me Down is underscored with electronic beats, though makes the most of its stop-start riffing and roller-coaster highs and lows, while Brother, Stand Beside Me is huge in scope and revels in its bombast.
Spiralling guitars and machine gun riffing lead the charge of Now, Thy Kingdom Come, a fast and furious heads-down wall of sound, even down to a distinctly gothic Cradle-esque keyboards. Familiar Pain, Fallen Star’s shortest and angriest song, rages with punk attitude and grinding speed, it comes over like post-hardcore classic, all topped off with a whirlwind solo and a fat bass.
Employed to Serve have kicked open their recording doors and invited a host of collaborators onboard to join the fun. Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos lends his voice to the lead single, Atonement, a heavy and uncompromising composition that shows the band adopting a different approach. Last Laugh begins like EtS’s version of classic rock, driving drums and hooky riffs and more nods to Cradle of Filth through the prominent keys as Svalbard’s Serena Cherry adds to the mid-section’s ethereal vocals.
Fallen Star’s final guest slot goes to Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage on Whose Side Are You On? Fast and fizzing, it’s ironically not the most KsE sounding tune on the album. Yarling guitars and some Spanish flavour play out the song which, in retrospect, is one of the record’s most diverse moments.
The two longest tunes of Fallen Star are left to the end, with The Renegade and From this Day Forward, both are full of big hooks and huge riffs, perfect examples of the Employed to Serve musical blueprint and are destined to become live favourite.
Justine and Sammy attract the media attention, but the other three members are instrumental (if you’ll pardon the expression) in the success of Employed to Serve. David Porter’s rhythm guitar supplements Nathan Pryor’s bass and is underpinned by Casey McHale’s mammoth percussion.
It’s the band’s third release on Spinefarm Records, and with tour dates already locked and loaded, 2025 is looking like an even more likely to see Employed to Serve even faster ascent up the metal echelons.
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