Band Line Up 2023
Two years on from their last full length, Eternal Forward Motion, Employed To Serve have announced their return with their fourth album, Conquering, due for release via Spinefarm Records on September 17th 2021.
Employed To Serve’s latest release, Conquering, is a fully realised metamorphosis into the band they’ve always wanted to be. Drawing influence from the music of their youth and a new perspective on how to nurture the positive aspects of humanity and individual growth, Conquering is a celebration and acknowledgement of triumph in the face of a world that can be relentlessly adversarial.
Album highlights, Exist, Mark of the Grave and Twist the Blade best encapsulate Employed To Serve’s rebirth, with an emphasis on groove and a penchant for colossal hooks that wouldn’t be out of place on Lamb of God or Machine Head’s respective catalogues. Frontwoman Justine Jones and Sammy Urwin (guitar / vocals) trade vocal duties throughout, confidently flitting between whiplash inducing screams and swaggering melodicism, as the rhythm section of recent additions Nathan Pryor (bass) and Casey McHale (drums) provide towering sonic weight to proceedings in the vein of Sepultura at their most defiant. The most enduring qualities of Employed To Serve’s established identity remain intact, as Conquering harnesses the bands signature technical prowess alongside their growing knack for stadium built battle-cries for a new generation of metal and hardcore fans.
Conquering presents a powerful statement from a band continuing to fire on all cylinders after the best part of a decade, without losing sight of their humble beginnings, and the hard work it’s taken to attain the reverence they hold both within and beyond genre confines. Where previous efforts explored the darker aspects of human emotion, this latest chapter in the band’s storied history acknowledges their past and offers a way forward with them through inner power and an unbridled encouragement of self-worth.
Four albums in, and a steady stream of critical acclaim and awards in tow, Employed To Serve’s meteoric rise from genre hopefuls to becoming one of UK metal’s most consistently captivating bastions is indisputable.
