There was a time when Employed To Serve felt like one of the UK’s best-kept secrets. Now, as they gear up to release their fifth album, Fallen Star, they’re positioned at the very forefront of British metal, standing on the precipice of something huge.
Woking, England, 2011 - Justine Jones and Sammy Urwin start writing chaotic grindcore together. In 2015, Employed To Serve released Greyer Than You Remember, a scrappy, venomous record that seemed to exist in its own lane, neither fully hardcore nor fully metal, but somewhere in the gnarly, unkempt middle ground. 2017’s The Warmth of A Dying Sun was thicker, harder, and made people stop and pay attention, with Kerrang! naming it their album of the year. 2019’s Eternal Forward Motion incorporated an infectious groove metal influence into their hardcore framework, bridging the gap between hardcore punk ferocity and modern metal’s anthemic heft. By 2021’s Conquering, the band had firmly planted their flag as a leading light in UK metal, adept at honouring heavy traditions and injecting fresh energy into the genre.
Employed To Serve’s upcoming album Fallen Star, is out April 25, 2025 via Spinefarm Records, and the first single Atonement immediately turned heads. Featuring Will Ramos, vocalist of Lorna Shore, Atonement marks the first time Ramos has ever recorded clean vocals on an album feature - the band chose this track to lead the album rollout because “it encompasses the ethos of Employed To Serve as a whole”, embodying their stance of working hard, and not letting negative people derail your ambitions.
Over a decade into this, Employed To Serve are headlining tours, and running Church Road Records, which has become a vital lifeline for underground bands in the wake of Holy Roar’s collapse, proving that a DIY mindset doesn’t have to mean small ambition. When Holy Roar imploded under the weight of its founder’s abuse allegations in 2020, Justine - who had spent years as one of the label’s key staff members - could have walked away. Instead, she and Sammy launched Church Road Records in a matter of days, salvaging albums, reissuing stock, and ensuring bands affected didn’t get lost in the wreckage. And in doing so, they built something stronger, a label that now fosters some of the UK’s most exciting young metal and hardcore bands. Self-sufficiency has defined their entire career. No shortcuts. No diluted vision. No chasing trends.
With Fallen Star on the horizon, we caught up with Justine Jones to talk about the band’s evolution, and what’s coming next:
Thanks for talking with us today, there’s a real sense of momentum around the band right now. Does this moment feel different from past album cycles?
I think there’s more buzz around this one for sure! I think a big part of it is all of the amazing guest vocalists we have and the fact we’ve taken longer to release a new album this time round...so maybe it’s my excitement I feel!
Looking back at your earliest releases, what do you think has changed the most about Employed to Serve, and what has remained the same?
I think we’re more musically confident and that’s just come with being a band for so long. I think our love and devotion to heavy metal has stayed the same! We’ve always been fans first.
Can you tell us about the themes on Fallen Star?
The album is about the ups and downs and ever changing flows of life and it’s about finding joy in the darkest of places.
How did the collaboration with Will Ramos come about, and who’s idea was it to feature his clean vocals?
When we were writing the demo for Atonement, we wrote the perfect part for Will’s style of vocals. We were lucky enough that he said yes when we approached him! The clean singing was all his idea, we gave him the track and we were like “here’s some ideas, but do your thing!”
Can you describe the way that you and Sammy write together? Has the process evolved over time?
It’s always been the same since the beginning pretty much! Most of the album is written on logic and demoed before heading to the practice room. We find it more productive when there are fairly solid ideas to work on, rather than writing from scratch at practice. The whole band throw ideas into the Whatsapp group and we work through it all together.
What particular influences or albums have shaped the direction of the new album?
There are a lot influences from bands like Soilwork and In Flames for this album, you can hear it in the songs with the heavy presence of synth. Apart from that, it’s pretty much the same bands that have always influenced us, such as Machine Head, Fear Factory and Slipknot.
Did you go into this album with a clear concept in mind for the lyrics?
The lyrics in Employed to Serve songs are almost always about personal experience or experiences of people close to us. So I guess you could say we knew what the lyrics would be about!
Four years on from the launch of Church Road Records, how do you feel about what the label has become?
I’m super proud with how it’s all going! We’re running the label in the worst financial circumstances ever and we’re still kicking along, I mean we launched it during the pandemic and just before Brexit! Talk about trial by fire. It’s really exciting being a part of such a thriving scene.
What makes a band stand out to you when you’re considering signing them?
The biggest thing is love for music and work ethic, you can always tell when a bands loves what they do as it shines through on their recordings and at their live shows.
Are we in a strong era for British heavy music right now?
Very much so! It’s getting harder each year for me to pick my AOTY lists. It’s a great sign!
What’s the best show you’ve ever played, and why?
Probably main stage at Bloodstock Festival, it’s one of the biggest shows we’ve ever played and the crowd were wild. It also helped that we had pyro for the first time as well ha, gotta love fire.