Employed To Serve – Fallen Star | Album Review

Employed To Serve have been bulldozing their way to prominence for over a decade now.

However, even the most dyed-in-the-wool fanatics of their early blend of chaotic hardcore would not have seen them becoming the heavy metal juggernaut they are today. Granted, they aren’t quite yet at the venue levels of the likes of your Triviums or Lamb of Gods, but if Fallen Star is anything to go by, it isn’t long. 

It feels like that has been written about the Woking metallers for years. Firstly with their breakthrough hit, The Warmth of a Dying Sun, it felt like they were on the cusp of breaking through in record fashion. They did gain a lot of traction, but maybe not at the same pace as some of their American counterparts. Then again on 2021’s Conquering, their most critically lauded album to date took them to further heights, but it has taken them a further few years to maybe reach where they ought to be. Fallen Star however, a full-on love letter to heavy metal and everything it stands for, is surely when they break another glass ceiling. 

From the ‘Angel of Death’ scream in ‘Treachery’ and its flashes of the New Wave of American Heavy metal riffing, or the best version of modern metalcore without all of the sickly tropes and trappings of the genre in the title track, Employed To Serve are wearing their hearts very firmly on their sleeves. 

Sammy Urwin feels like he’s been saving all the best riffs for this release his whole life, whether it’s the thrashing drive of ‘The Renegades’, or the tremolo shrillness of ‘Familiar Pain’, Fallen Star sees the guitarist at his razor sharp best. Justine Jones turns in her finest vocal performance to date, sounding more focused, possessed, and powerful than ever which, for a vocalist of her calibre, is frightening that she has found another level entirely. 

Even the selection of guest appearances feels like an attempt to tie in the past, the present, and the future. Will Ramos (Lorna Shore) brings his customary goblin growl and, by comparison, soaring clean to lead single ‘Atonement’, which musically is a scratch track and a few beer kegs away from being the best song Slipknot never wrote. Long time friend of the band Serena Cherry (Svalbard) brings a heartbreak and melancholy to ‘Last Laugh’ which brings a wonderful new flavour alongside hulking grooves and stabbing atonal battery. And, well, if you’re going to find a space for Jesse Leach on your record, it may as well be on the sub-four minute sonic whirlwind ‘Whose Side Are You On?’. 

There are only a few moments where Fallen Star dips in quality, and that largely comes down to sequencing issues. ‘Breaks Me Down’, for example, is a necessary change of pace, however it doesn’t match the heights of the opening three tracks and feels, in context, like a step down in quality. The fact that this is a rare occurrence speaks to just how much of an achievement this record actually is.

Almost exactly a decade since their debut, it feels like the world is finally seeing Employed To Serve in their ultimate form. From scrappy upstart hardcore darlings to lean, focused, heavy metal Behemoths, Employed to Serve have consistently delivered career highlights across their career. Fallen Star may have just crashed its way into the conversation to be the brightest of the lot.