'We Have Flames Now!': Employed to Serve on the Arena-Sized 'Fallen Star' and Heavy Metal Unity
Wednesday, 02 April 2025
Written by Matt Mills
Photo: Bethan Miller
A little under three years ago, Employed to Serve pulled up at the Forest National Arena in Belgium for the first stop of a tour across Europe opening for Gojira. Looming above them was the biggest non-festival venue they’d ever played, with 8,000 fans soon baying for their metalcore anthems. For a band more accustomed to levelling clubs, what was going through their minds as they laid eyes on the enormous building?
“I was very stoked about getting my steps in,” singer Justine Jones says with a laugh while flanked on a Zoom call by guitarist-vocalist Sammy Urwin. “I kept getting lost in all the corridors. It was very Spinal Tap — no matter how many signs there were for where the stage is and where the backstage is. It was just surreal.”
By their own admission, Employed to Serve didn’t start with arena-sized ambitions. When Jones and Urwin (then dating, now husband and wife) started making music together 15 years ago, they dished out rabid hardcore designed to excite a handful of moshers at a time in pubs around their hometown of Woking. “We just wanted to have a release on vinyl and play a few shows,” Urwin reflects with a shrug.
Today, however, these former rabble-rousers are flirting with the big time. Prior to the release of their third album ‘Eternal Forward Motion’ in 2019 they signed with Spinefarm Records, home to Bullet For My Valentine, While She Sleeps and other modern metal greats. Their music, meanwhile, found added nu-metal bounce before they pulled from the headbangable groove metal of Machine Head and Sepultura on 2021’s ‘Conquering’.
Their latest LP ‘Fallen Star’ — their first since arena runs with Gojira in 2022 and 2023 — is ironically titled given how clearly it shows that Employed to Serve are ready for metal’s mainstream. From Treachery’s pit-starting thrash to the climactic piano of From This Day Forward, it is the most impressive collection of earworms this band have ever amassed.
Its lead single Atonement siphons additional star power by weaving clean vocals from Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos into its powerhouse chorus, while Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leach lends his roar to the breakdown of Whose Side Are You On?. Elsewhere, Brother Stand Behind Me harks back to Iron Maiden with heroic guitar harmonies, while Breaks Me Down layers Urwin’s ever-improving croon on top of some atmospheric synths.
“The Gojira tour definitely inspired us further along this road,” Urwin says, acknowledging Employed’s increasingly big-room-ready output. “We were definitely trending in this direction already, with Mark of the Grave on the last album. I think how well that track went over on the Gojira tour, and how much fun it was to play, gave us the green light to trudge forwards.”
“Have you seen our pyro?” Jones adds in joyous disbelief. “We have flames now!”
It should be said, though, that while this sort of crowd-pleasing heaviness has taken time to burst through in their own music, it’s something Employed to Serve have always loved. Urwin is an acolyte of ‘80s metal, especially Dio, while Jones grew up blasting Korn, Slipknot, Deftones and other nu-metal giants.
“My parents weren’t into rock and metal like Sammy’s were,” she says. “I had to find it on my own. So, basically, it was anything that Scuzz or Kerrang! had on their playlists that was nu-metal or nu-metal-adjacent.”
But, given they’re so good at this stuff, why did they play such erratic and inaccessible hardcore for so long? Well, the influence of their longtime pals in cult screamers Palm Reader played a part, as did discovering Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge and other frenetic favourites. But, also, they’d just graduated uni when they started out — good luck frequenting stadium spectacles on that budget. “We barely had the money for tickets to the bigger shows,” Jones remembers. “[By sticking to bar gigs] we could go to five shows for the price of one. Why would you not?”
As they pursue metal’s upper tier, Employed to Serve haven’t lost sight of the pub-league scene that made them. When they’re not on the road, Jones and Urwin run Church Road Records, a label specifically designed to champion the UK’s fertile underground. Its signees have ranged from Palm Reader to synth-rock up-and-comers Zetra, as well as post-metal crusaders Svalbard, whose singer-guitarist Serena Cherry guests on ‘Fallen Star’ banger Last Laugh.
The band will continue to scale new heights while uplifting the next generation on their UK tour in April. The run will feature their biggest headline show at London’s O2 Academy Islington, and rounding out the lineup will be two Church Road artists: death metal traditionalists Celestial Sanctuary and metal/hardcore squad Burner. “It’s just a smorgasbord of metal,” Urwin says of the package. “Celestial Sanctuary’s bringing the death metal and Burner’s just bringing the unapologetic ferocity.”
“And we’re a nice, traditional-metal-ish whatever-we-are,” Jones smiles.
Employed to Serve’s celebration of every facet of metal — from the nu-metal, trad-metal and groove metal of the past to whatever tomorrow’s stars are currently making — embodies their slogan of ‘heavy metal unity’. It’s a phrase that the band include in many of their social media posts, campaigning against gatekeeping and for a supportive community.
“It’s about inclusivity,” Jones explains. “When we were coming up, everyone was trying to keep bands to themselves, being very elitist about it. It was very unwelcoming, especially when we were 16 and going to death metal shows. If you wore a deathcore band shirt, it’d be like, ‘Ew, that’s lame!’”
Urwin adds, “This is a universal language. You can go to any corner of the Earth and see someone wearing a Slayer shirt. You might not even speak the same language, but you’ll instantly have a connection.”
Jones and Urwin want a prosperous future for the entirety of metal, their own band obviously included, but they’re under no illusions that it’ll happen overnight. Instead, much like the band they tasted arenas with a couple of years ago, they’re prepared to build a loyal following through years of graft and a rich catalogue. “Doing the Gojira tour proved to us, ‘Oh, we can do this,’” Urwin says.
Jones continues, “Especially when you’re seeing a band like Gojira, who’ve been around for a while, climb steadily to the point where they’re massive. There’s such a big emphasis on virality and TikTok now, but you can’t bet on that. It’s about taking each step and moving the goalposts with you, essentially.”
Employed to Serve’s ‘Fallen Star’ is out on April 25 via Spinefarm.
Employed To Serve Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Mon April 21 2025 - WOLVERHAMPTON KK's Steel Mill
Tue April 22 2025 - GLASGOW Cathouse
Wed April 23 2025 - LEEDS Key Club
Thu April 24 2025 - CARDIFF Clwb Ifor Bach
Fri April 25 2025 - LONDON O2 Academy Islington
Thu July 10 2025 - LIVERPOOL Rough Trade
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