Employed To Serve have been studying Gothenburg death metal in advance of their fifth studio album.
The Woking metalcore favourites, who supported Gojira in European arenas two years ago, say In Flames and Soilwork, plus Him and Dio, have shaped their as-yet-unreleased music.
“We’ve got the Scandi-metal sound on there,” singer Justine Jones says of the followup to 2021’s Conquering in a new interview with Kerrang!. “There’s a big In Flames influence.”
Singer/guitarist Sammy Urwin adds: “I wanted to explore melody even more than we have in the past. We’d been listening to a lot of bands like Soilwork and In Flames.”
Urwin also nods towards Him’s album Love Metal and the solo work of ex-Black Sabbath man Ronnie James Dio, whom Jones says he’s “always listening to”.
“I didn’t nail the Rainbow In The Dark keyboard, though,” Urwin jokes. “Next time. I’ll have to call up and ask, ‘What keyboard setting did you use on the Casio?’ But yeah, it was definitely a decision to add that element to the sound. I can’t really remember what the real catalyst was, other than jamming a lot of Soilwork.”
The pair also talk about the influence of the Gojira tour, which saw Employed perform in some of the biggest venues they’ve ever graced.
“On the big tour we did with Gojira, we found ourselves leaning into our more metal stuff and less into the chaotic, earlier songs,” says Urwin. “Some things just don’t translate in arenas, and I think some of that has fed into the new material, for sure.”
Jones adds: “We’re almost manifesting those big stages now. It’s hard sometimes, because we started this in our early 20s and we didn’t really know what we were doing. We’ve ticked off all of our bucket-list things, or at least a good portion of them. We were lucky enough to do most of our dream stuff quite early on in our career.
“So now sometimes we’re a bit like, ‘Well, why not act like the sky’s the limit and try to do these bigger songs for these bigger stages?’ Let’s do it and see where it takes us, and have fun whilst we’re doing it.”
Husband-and-wife Urwin and Jones co-founded Employed in 2012. In advance of 2019 album Eternal Forward Motion, the band signed with major metal label Spinefarm (Sleep Token, Bullet For My Valentine, Atreyu).
Metal Hammer interviewed Employed during their Gojira tour in 2023, and Jones admitted that playing bigger venues was making her a more confident performer.
“Playing this many big shows in a row has helped me get over myself,” she said. “I used to be so awkward talking in between songs. Now, I’m getting used to talking to so many people. I’m learning, if you make a mistake, the chances are that most people won’t notice. Just move on.”
Employed’s fifth album is expected to come out later this year.
