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Lifers of the UK metal scene, EMPLOYED TO SERVE have risen from scrappy, mathy hardcore upstarts to a riotous, arena-ready tour de force as they’ve driven more and more into metal territory. 2020’s Conquering saw them metamorphose from the metallic hardcore heft of Eternal Forward Motion into a double-kick fuelled riff machine, and their latest effort Fallen Star sees them push the envelope further still while visually calling back to the early days of The Warmth Of A Dying Sun. We find ourselves catching up with Sammy Urwin, guitarist and co-vocalist, who alongside vocalist Justine Jones also runs underground tastemaker label Church Road Records and now their own press agency, Since Always Press.
One of the first parts of their evolution over the years has been their visual identity; from a scrappy hardcore band, through to the matching windbreakers during Eternal Forward Motion, to now. While the rest of the band sports black and sometimes leather, vocalist Justine Jones has been wearing much more colourful dresses, particularly one in recent promo images that recalls the orange of The Warmth Of A Dying Sun. “Some of those would definitely be a hazard to wear in the live environment,” Sammy laughs. We’ve moved into a space where we’re much more influenced by straight up metal bands. We’re a more theatrical band these days. We’re still far from being FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE by any stretch, but we want to present ourselves differently.”
“We’re not a scrappy upstart hardcore band,” he continues. “It’s not that we’re fucking rock stars or anything but it’s music that makes people feel like they’re larger than life. Our visuals have to echo that. We want to have that vibe.” Pulling influence from bands like JUDAS PRIEST and BLACK SABBATH visually too, taking cues from those bands’ classic photoshoots, they wanted to pay homage to that era “without looking like we’re trying to be some retro band”, he grins. “We’re influenced by this aesthetic, the bravado, but we’re presenting it in a modern setting.”
Of course, the changes aren’t just visual, but musical. Fallen Star is their most obviously metal album they’ve penned thus far and sprawls far further than its predecessor. “The biggest evolution we’ve done between records is from Eternal Forward Motion to Conquering,” Sammy explains of the leap between previous albums. “We were shifting in a more metallic direction but having Casey [McHale] come on board, being such a different drummer from our previous sticksman Robbie [Back], that gave us the green light to fully go down the route of double bass pedals, blast beats and really utilise those facets of songwriting that weren’t readily available for us before.”
It led to an album that, as Sammy admits now, they feel wasn’t quite as dynamic a release as they would typically do. If Conquering only had one mode – and to its credit, it’s still one that holds up – it was captured by its name. Unapologetic, confrontational and groovy as hell. Fallen Star finds EMPLOYED TO SERVE plumbing new depths and directions, while keeping a firm hold of what made that album so damn exciting in the first place. “This is a more realised version of the band we were becoming on Conquering. No discredit to that record. I absolutely love it, but I feel this is definitely a better representation of what we were aiming for,” he explains of the band broadening their sonic horizons.
Make no mistake – Fallen Star is absolutely a metal record and it still takes savage glee in massive riffs and the hulking groove that’s become their stock in trade. Take opener Treachery, that features an Angel of Death-esque scream with furious blast beats, or lead single Atonement that pairs ETS’ groove with a guest spot from LORNA SHORE’s Will Ramos. Not content to merely throw in the expected goblin noises, it features him going, as Sammy describes it, “full-on CREED” in the final chorus. “We had to push that to the forefront,” he agrees of its place as lead single.
“It just kind of comes out and clobbers you in the face,” he grins, “and you’ve got to make a statement with the first single, because it’s the one most eyes are on. Atonement fit that bill because it’s straight in with a sledgehammer riff, but it shows some of the boundaries we’re pushing as a band.” Those boundaries do, indeed, get pushed. Last Laugh features a guest appearance from SVALBARD’s Serena Cherry, who sings an ethereal melodic counterpoint to Jones’ bark, but from the synths and atmosphere of the song, there’s something distinctly more goth about it.
As Sammy tells us when we remark that there’s a distinctly UNTO OTHERS vibe to it, “that song is my personal love letter to HIM. I’ve always loved HIM, but whilst we were on tour over the last couple of years, Love Metal and Razorblade Romance were on repeat for me in the van. I thought, I want to write a song that has a real basic four to the floor drum beat, and the guitar solo as well was totally me going, I love HIM!” As wide-ranging as some of the influences are on Fallen Star, it keeps that ETS groove they’ve become known for across albums like Eternal Forward Motion or, importantly, The Warmth Of A Dying Sun.
It’s an important one because in many ways, Fallen Star is Warmth…’s antithesis. The band are in almost entirely different headspaces now, emphasised by the shift in tone lyrically even if the colour palettes are similar. “We thought it’d be really cool to bring it back even if just on t-shirts. Then we wrote the song Fallen Star completely independent of that conversation about bringing the sun back. We were quite taken with the idea of calling the record Fallen Star and it seemed for multiple reasons like a brilliant time to bring the sun back,” Sammy begins.
“It also draws this comparison between not only who we were as musicians when we did Warmth but also how the mentality and outlook of the band has changed since that point. Warmth is just a miserable record through and through. That album as a whole is about the sun setting on the things you enjoy in life and living in fear of it only getting worse, and enjoying fewer things til you’re just a miserable person.” The exact opposite of that is where Fallen Star operates; “the album as a whole reflects on all the bad shit going on, but focuses on the stuff that’s positive, on individuals and what you can do as a person to bring yourself happiness.”
In many ways, it’s a record of contrasts but one ultimately about growth. Both from where the band were musically back in 2017 for The Warmth Of A Dying Sun, but also where they’ve got to today. As lifers in the scene, they’ve seen bands and fads come and go, but have always resolutely followed their own path, while embracing anyone that chose to walk it with them as fans, friends or collaborators. It’s summed up perfectly by their new slogan that calls out to the whole world to unite under the metal banner: heavy metal unity.
Fallen Star is out now via Spinefarm Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS120 here:
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