Review: Employed to Serve – Fallen Star

May 7, 2025

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Twinkle, Twinkle, Fallen Star

One of the rising bands coming from the UK underground has been Employed to Serve; they’ve caught people’s ears with their own take on post-hardcore/metalcore. The album that really struck it for me was 2017’s The Warmth of a Dying Sun and while they have released two more albums since then, they haven’t had the impact that the 2017 release had for me personally. Now, the band are on their 5th release in their discography with Fallen Star.

Starting this album out with a bang comes “Treachery,” a track that includes their nicely executed riffs that have a tint of groove to them. The vocal delivery from Justine Jones remains one of the band’s strongest points; she just hits hard whenever she comes in. Now onto the title track, “Fallen Star:” I like the atmospheric feeling here which works well with the band’s sound, but one of my issues with the band’s more recent material has been the clean vocals from Sammy Urwin which just don’t work for me at all. I wasn’t a fan of them on 2019’s Conquering and this doesn’t change my mind, it feels like this sets the album back.

This setback continues to be prominent on the next song, “Atonement” which while it has some good moments doesn’t hit well for me. The guest appearance from Will Ramos from Lorna Shore was interesting, especially when he suddenly started doing clean vocals which is very out of left field based on his output in Lorna Shore. The next track “Breaks Me Down” is probably the weakest track of the whole album with similar issues as the previous couple tracks. The first half of the album, despite some strong moments, ends up feeling weak here.

Bringing the album back to life however comes “Familiar Pain” with some strong riffs—an absolute ripper. Onto the next song, “Brother, Stand Beside Me” whose standout part for me is the mix of melodic lead guitars blending in with their nu-metal type riffs that works well here. Incoming with a blitzing intro comes “Now Thy Kingdom Come” which has more of a faster pace that is refreshing on this album. Also, the addition of synths here is really neat and I want to hear more of that incorporated in Employed to Serve’s music.

The second half is certainly the stronger part of Fallen Star and further backing up this point comes “Last Laugh” which has a bit of a post-punk vibe to it that I like. I also like the guest inclusion of Serena Cherry from Svalbard as well as a sick guitar solo in this track. Another heavier track is next with “Whose Side Are You On?” that delivers hard right here. I also like the guest inclusion of Jesse Leach from Killswitch Engage whose vocals I like more than Sammy’s cleans. The weakest track on this half is probably “The Renegades” which is okay but compared to the other tracks doesn’t click for me as well. However, “From This Day Forward” finishes the album on a high note, mixing their best elements together as well as hitting back with some nice breakdowns.

I will say that Fallen Star overall is an improvement on their last release, Conquering for me. However, I still came out from this listening experience kind of frustrated with the album; some of the best songs on the record are just brilliant and stand out very strong in the band’s history. Also, while I did welcome the additional new use of synths and atmospheric elements in the band’s music, the issue with Sammy’s clean vocals still lingers here unfortunately. (His backing harshes are better though.) It is annoying because they don’t really need his cleans; Justine is still brilliant as the band’s main vocalist. It’s certainly better than their last two releases overall but it’s still far behind The Warmth of the Dying Sun. I would certainly want to check future Employed to Serve material with more of the synths/atmospheric elements in the future though.