Employed To Serve

Heavy metal is more than just music. For some, it is a fully fledged lifestyle, woven into their DNA. This is something Employed To Serve embodies. After rising from road warrior martyrs paying their dues to staking their claim as arena-ready contenders following a huge tour with Gojira, they’re here to take pride of place on the heavy metal world stage with their new album ‘Fallen Star’.

Vocalist Justine Jones and guitarist /co-vocalist Sammy Urwin first met in their teens, starting the band with the intention of standing shoulder to shoulder with the local scene bands they admired. Now, after evolving from the feral mathcore chaos of their early EPs to detonating a full-throttle career high with 2021 album ‘Conquering’, they’re clearly lifers; make that lifers with a mission…

“We want to fly the flag for heavy metal and the traditions that it holds,” offers Sammy, acknowledging his life-long love of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Metallica, iconic artists he now finds more inspiring than ever. “But at the same time we want to play our part in taking things forward.

“We’re both super nerdy about music; however, if you just want to turn up and enjoy the show, that’s good too. The question is: does the music do something for you? If so, awesome!”

“When I was younger, I hated that you had to be either a metalcore fan or an emo metal fan,” adds Justine. “There was such a big divide, whereas now it feels a lot more unified.”

The gospel that Employed To Serve are preaching is Heavy Metal Unity. In any group where passions run high there are inevitably factions: questions of authenticity, sonic purism and true kvlt gatekeepers sometimes lend this outsider art an oddly conservative air. But with streaming breaking down barriers and genres blending more potently than ever, they believe it’s time for a new era of inclusivity and open-mindedness. After all, whatever bands people are into, they’re still part of the same metal community.

Employed To Serve stand as a proud example of what unity of this kind can achieve. Expanding upon Justine and Sammy’s already myriad influences, the rest of the band alchemise further ingredients into the mix, collectively traversing old school touch points, groove and nu-metal immediacy, plus an experimental flair. Each musician brings something unique to the table: With David Porter’s roots coming from the extremes of the black/death metal scene, Casey’s extensive touring CV with a wide spectrum of bands, and Nathan Pryor’s background lying in Hardcore, this chemistry of different styles makes for an engaging and eclectic listen.

Collectively, they have radically raised the bar with upcoming album, ‘Fallen Star’, their third for Spinefarm. It’s a record of dizzying diversity, yet also one that is utterly uncompromising. Opening song, ‘Treachery’, goes straight for the jugular – metalcore-meets-thrash riffs with blast-beats and blood-letting screams. But the title track is quite different to anything they’ve done before; Justine’s raw, sorrowful screams are tellingly supported by Sammy’s melodic vocal harmonies, the whole thing coloured with synth textures and arguably the most soaring hook ETS have ever put their name to.

As Justine notes, “There’s no heaviness without the lighter moments, and it was really important for that song in particular to have that juxtaposition. These days, we’re putting more emphasis on writing choruses and songs with more melodic elements because that’s exciting to us. It challenges us as musicians.”

That approach also stands tall in ‘Atonement’, as Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos spits guttural growls and clean vocals (his first on a feature) backed by distorted guitars, battering-ram rhythms and a Judas Priest-style solo, before shooting into what Sammy describes as “an arena rock chorus”. And the surprises keep coming: the Soilwork-inspired synths on ‘Break Me Down’, and the wild Kerry King solos on ‘Whose Side Are You On?’

That song also features a typically explosive feature from Killswitch Engage’s Jesse Leach, a dream collaboration for Justine…

“It was one of those ‘meeting your heroes’ moments, and I’m like, holy shit, Jesse Leach is screaming the words I wrote and is standing right next to me in a music video!”

His irrepressible spirit embodies the themes that provide a dopamine shot of positivity throughout the album: finding inner confidence, sticking fearlessly to beliefs, and embracing the power that flows within a tight-knit group.

For Sammy, it’s about taking a different path to the cathartic anger of fan favourite album, ‘The Warmth of a Dying Sun’ (2017)…

“With heavy music, it’s easy to enter a cycle of writing records that are all focusing on the negatives, and then it becomes a feedback loop and starts to seep into your personal life as well. I want to acknowledge the bad shit, but get you fired up to be able to face those challenges.”

Justine concurs: “Even if you don’t actively follow the news, it will find you on social media, so it’s very easy to surround yourself with bad energy. That’s why I think albums that highlight togetherness and the good things are important, because every social media algorithm is trying to get you angry.”

While Heavy Metal Unity is an empowering philosophy, Employed To Serve are also passionate about supporting the community in a practical sense. This is best represented by the rise of their own Church Road Records, a homespun DIY operation which became a much bigger operation when the two took it on full time during the pandemic. They’ve cultivated a hub for artists right across the sonic spectrum, including their friends Svalbard, whose vocalist Serena Cherry also lends her ethereal sounding clean vocals to the track, ‘Last Laugh’.

Justine draws parallels between the label’s breaking artists and her band’s increasingly frequent triumphs…

“You get into an album campaign, and I’m like, cool, we’re doing Download and we’re on the cover of Kerrang!. Sometimes you have to take a moment to think, ‘This is insane, I’m playing a festival I’ve attended since I was a kid and I’m in a magazine that I religiously poured through every week’. So when we’re working with bands at an early stage in their career, it’s really exciting to experience those things with them, like getting their first Radio 1 Rock Show play or Metal Hammerfeature.”

Employed To Serve have played every type of big show imaginable, from Bloodstock through to Glastonbury in the UK, and Hellfest, Wacken and Roskilde across Europe, but pulverising arenas with Gojira reshaped their perceptions of just how far you can take what is essentially heavy, impervious music…

“They’re a prime example of how you don’t have to compromise your sound or your values,” praises Justine. “They were headlining the Underworld in London not too long ago, then they went up to Brixton Academy, and then Alexandra Palace, and now they’re the first metal band to play the Olympics. How insane is that?! They’re a great indicator of what you can achieve on your own terms.”

“I always say we never started this to be an arena band,” continues Sammy, “but we know that’s a space where we excel. We’ve proved that we can hold our own in that environment, and we’re eager to take the band as far as we possibly can.”

In the journey ahead, Employed To Serve will play every gig as if it’s their last. You won’t want to take your eyes off Justine as she prowls the stage, or Sammy as he peels off evil riffs with a cheek-to-cheek grin, leaving the rest of the band to bring a ferocity that can flatten a town.

“We’re band rats,” laughs Sammy. “We’re lifers. This is who we are.”

“Yeah!” chuckles Justine. “I mean, what else are we going to do?”

Employed To Serve have come, have seen, have conquered and now reign supreme as one of Britain’s shining lights, hell bent on forging their legacy of Heavy Metal Unity. Long may it continue.