From underground mathcore darlings to world-ending groove metal juggernauts, Employed to Serve have steadily refined their sound with each release, crafting albums that each feel distinct while remaining anchored by the band’s unmistakable identity. Though their shifts in style have often been subtle, their cumulative effect has moved the British outfit closer to a more accessible, mainstream metal sound—without ever fully shedding their raw, underground edge. At the same time, recent records have seen frontwoman Justine Jones and guitarist Sammy Urwin incorporate more clean vocals into the mix, leaving many longtime fans wary greeted with Fallen Star's trio of uncharacteristic lead singles. If there’s a trend Employed to Serve can be accurately accused of following for this release, however, it’s the increasingly common habit of bands promoting their albums with their weakest and least representative offerings.
I'm burying the lede quite a bit here, but so have Employed to Serve themselves, and it's impossible to truly divorce the rest of the record from the three leading tracks that have driven discussion around it so far, and which also account for three out of its first four offerings. "Fallen Star" is the best of the bunch. As its ethereal, pink-washed thumbnail suggests, the track is a melodic, almost gazey number, that sees both Jones and Urwin laying on the cleans alongside some added and rather awkwardly fitting piano melodies. The track would probably be ok, in isolation, and is likely influenced by Svalbard—with whom Employed to serve have a close relationship, and whose Serena Cherry shows up later on the more successful "Last Laugh". However, it comes off more like a lesser version of what Ithaca were going for on their (sadly) last album.
"Atonement" and "Breaks Me Down" are pretty irredeemable though. It's hard not to see the former as a fairly blatant play for mainstream adaptability. Tapping Lorna Shore's Will Ramos for a guest feature will likely do wonders for their exposure, so it makes sense why they released it as the album's lead single. His talents are squandered however, amid Disturbed-esque grunts and an uninspired "Psychosocial"-style riff, coupled with a rudimentry solo and a grating chorus that proves that, just because it's catchy doesn't mean it's good. Even less effective—although certainly remarkable—is that the song's final moments see Ramos delivering a clean-sung yarl that only adds to his prowess as deathcore's foremost subhuman vocaliser. Your mileage may vary, but I didn't like it when Phil Bozeman did it, and I like it even less here. "Breaks Me Down" is an even bigger departure, being built around an almost hip-hop-sounding beats and synths that never really build to anything, while Urwin delivers some fairly awkward and often cliche clean vocals.
Any of these three tracks would have been excusable in isolation. Placing them all back-to-back and also leading with them—both during the album's campaign and on the record itself—puts the listener on the back foot, suggesting that Employed to Serve themselves are both done with and dissatisfied with their traditional, sludgy metalcore sound. Its a decision that further suggests that the band perhaps took the wrong lessons from Conquering (2021), leaning toward the nu-metal leaning alt-rock of singles "Mark of the Grave" and "Exist", rather than doubling down on the masterful groove-metal of tracks like "Universal Chokehold", "Sun Up to Sun Down" and "World Ender". What's most frustrating though, is these tracks give entirely the wrong impression, because the rest of Fallen Star absolutely rips!
To be fair, the album does kick off with a more traditional rager in "Treachery", which begins with a Slayer-style screech 9presumably delivered by Urwin. In the context of what follows though, it falls somewhat flat, and reminds me a lot of the pre-emtive reassurance/apology of "Volatile" from Machine Head's Catharsis (2018)—one of many parallels with that band's most recent record. Again, in isolation, the track feels out of place, but actually ends up being representative of what the bulk of Fallen Star has to offer, and would fit in extremely well within its later half. "Familiar Pain" proves that the band have the ability to pull off some of their filed experiments. Here, Urwin's clean vocals fit perfectly, even if Jones's vocal phrasing is still a bit awkward at times. There's a much more distinctive and energised solo and the abundant Slipknot-isms are also integrated much better within and alongside the band's own trademark bounce. "Now Thy Kingdom" is another Slipknot-infused thrasher that name checks the "Dying Sun" of Employed to Serve's past triumphs, while closer "From This Day Forward" features another outstanding melodic solo and clean singing contributions from Urwin and ends on a somewhat gazey section as well—all the while being built around a devastating groove that also manages to weave in a bit of synth and melody, while still retaining the band's characteristic crunch,
Fallen Star's best and most successful offering happen in-between, however. The Serena Cherry "Last Laugh" is a surprisingly goth-tinged number, reminiscent of some of what Gatecreeper were serving on their latest lauded outing, even if the somewhat jangly guitar-tone is more Cure than Paradise Lost, and comes complete with another solid solo and much more memorable and sincere-sounding chorus than that of "Atonement". Cherry's clean-sung vocals really work here, and the track perhaps suggests a more potent direction for Employed to Serve to follow if they want to melodiscise and mellow out their sound a bit. Perhaps the best song on the album though is "Whose Side Are You On", which also features a prominent guest spot, this time in the form of Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leech. The track is another thrash-centric offering, driven by Casey McHale's pounding double bass drumming. The track is possibly the heaviest thing Leech has lent his vocals to, despite his own band's recent forays into borderline death metal—even if he and Cherry's contributions do have the unintended side effect of further exposing the weakness of Jones and Urwin's own cleans.Having said that, Urwin's vocals really work on fellow highlight "The Renegades", which—following a rather "House of the Rising Sun"-sounding intro, delivers more of a melodic offering that again sees Urwin delivering a compelling clean-chorus and would have made for a great opener.
Variation and experimentation are both good things. Without them, Fallen Star would have run the risk of falling into the dull, one-dimensionality that made Eternal Forward Motion (2019), or simply being written off as a lesser version of The Warmth of a Dying Sun (2017). At the same time, much of the album;s experimentation comes off as either cynical or at least undercooked, and while I support Employed To Serve's willingness to add new elements into their sound, I would caution them not to do so at the expense of their core sound, which—as the record's latter half shows—remains both potent and distinctive. Had they foregrounded more of these later tracks, Fallen Star would be more likely to be greeted as the worthy successor to The Warmth of a Dying Sun that its cover suggests it was aiming for. As is, it's simply another (albeit deceptively) great entry in Employed to Serve's discography, even if this one comes with some serious caveats.