Fallen Star
Artist: Employed To Serve
Genre: Metal, Metalcore
Record Label: Spinefarm Records
Release Date: 25 April 2025
Employed To Serve’s Fifth Album, Fallen Star, doesn’t ease you in. When opener Treachery kicks in, it’s straight into a fast, filthy assault of riffs, produced in a way that makes them sound utterly huge. It doesn’t let up for almost four minutes, joined by the dual vocals of Justine Jones and Sammy Urwin, at one point the guitar tone so brutal that it sounds like another layer to the growls.
A vital band in the UK’s DIY metal scene, Employed To Serve’s sound has progressed and tightened with each record they put out. Fallen Star is their third album on Spinefarm and their fifth working with producer Lewis Johns. Unsurprisingly, having worked with the band from their very first record, Johns does an incredible job of making this band sound as brutal and urgent as they deserve. When the tracks call for an all out assault, they utterly hammer you through the speakers, but when there are programmed elements, keys and strings, they’re given plenty of room to breathe. While there are some electronic elements on the title track, opening the song and sitting behind the verse, they come into their own by Breaks Me Down, when they become a fundamental element to the sound. Title track Fallen Star has an interesting juxtaposition of styles, the electronic-led verse is musically calm while the vocals over the top sound pained, each word breaking up as it’s yelled, yet when the backing music in the chorus takes a heavier angle, the vocals switch up for stunningly sung clean vocals.
Atonement opens with just vocals, before letting the chugging riffs take over – they’re some of the clearest vocals to pick up, “ Gripping tightly with my hands, you won’t stop my master plan. Why can’t you understand? If I can’t have you, no one can”. By the chorus, they’re joined by clean guest vocals from Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos. It works well, giving contrast to Justine’s growls. Familiar Pain is quite cathartic underneath the assault of guitars and drums, the vocals crying out “Just go ahead and rip it off, embrace the pain. I keep falling for the same old tricks, time and time again” during the chorus – the guitar solo is wild in this track too, it wouldn’t feel out of place on a Slayer track. Brother, Stand Beside Me has one of the most melodic parts of the album around halfway through when the harmonised guitars kick in, eventually complemented with vocals sitting perfectly in the mix. Nasty outro though.
Now Thy Kingdom Come starts off heavy but what makes the track stand out is the section towards the end where an arpeggiated synth kicks in and the low rumble of Sammy’s voice, “I feel it in the wind, restitution for all sins. The snake it shall unwind, take no pity on the blind”, creates a sort of 90s metal sound – it’s jarring but works perfectly, although when the descending riff comes in towards the end – good god does this sound heavy. Last Laugh features guest vocals from Serena Cherry of fellow UK DIY legends Svalbard – it’s a very different style of vocal to the rest of the album and helps create quite an epic feel to the song; even when the bass drum is going at rapid pace there’s a sort of spacey calm to these sections.
Who’s Side Are You On sees another guest vocal appearance, this time from Jesse Leach, vocalist of Killswitch Engage. It’s another track where a lot is going on in the background, all the vocals sound incredible on this song though, different styles but all of them brutal. The Renegades is a standout track from the record, the anthemic chorus, the riffs that fly along, the heaviness of the sound – there’s something about this song. “We’re the reason for the strength that we feel. We’re the answer to disaster, rebuild. We fight through the darkest days. We are the renegades” – both clean and growled, while the music builds to an epic blend of picked guitar and layers of electronic strings. The album ends with From This Day Forward with it’s verse of “I won’t accept ignorance is bliss, I won’t accept cowardice” and some epic metalcore guitar parts and solid breakdown – I hope I get to hear this track played live!
Oddly, my first time seeing Employed To Serve live was at arguably one of their most unlikely festival sets to date, playing Glastonbury on a bill headlined by Stormzy and The Killers and, even in that context, they put on a live show that stood out as one of the best of the weekend. I’ve seen them since, albeit not for a few years, but hearing Fallen Star just makes me want to witness them live again. It’s a thoroughly brutal album, but it still has quite a lot of variety over the eleven songs. There’s no filler here, and the production is, frankly, incredible – one of the best sounding metalcore albums I’ve heard in a good while.
Employed to Serve next concerts
Employed To Serve play Islington Academy tonight, 25th April, but have a few festivals this summer (2000 Trees in the UK, Graspop in Belgium and Jera on Air in the Netherlands. Hopefully, there’ll be more opportunities to hear this live soon!