ALBUM REVIEW: The Warmth of a Dying Sun – Employed To Serve
Despite being relatively new to our alternative scene of musical misfits, EMPLOYED TO SERVE have used their time with surgical effectiveness. With their previous album Greyer Than You Remember they showed a frantic aggression coupled with sludgy riffs and a quick post-hardcore spring to its step. What EMPLOYED TO SERVE have managed with new album, The Warmth of a Dying Sun, is building upon the foundations already set whilst also displaying some different sides to their multifaceted sound.
Opening with Void Ambition, its clear that EMPLOYED TO SERVE have consolidated the best features of their previous back catalogue. With rock-steady drums leading the way for sludgy riffs that switch between lumbering grooves and the quicker, more pit friendly passages. Good For Nothing follows on and continues the trend before the opening half of Lethargy begins to offer deeper insights into how the band have progressed their sound.
With a higher focus on dragging out and evolving musical ideas, EMPLOYED TO SERVE take a bigger step down the post-hardcore route with The Warmth of a Dying Sun, and with great success too. The sparing use of clean vocals makes for moments of reprise from the rest of the chaos, but it isn’t long before Lethargy twists and changes into a hulking beast by its final moments.
It is on the first single released for the record that shows some of the downfalls of the album. I Spend My Days is easily the most accessible song on the album, boasting a chorus and traditional song structure, and it works fantastically well for the band. With this display of being able to write songs of this calibre it makes one wonder why they didn’t try to implement these more easily accessible elements into more of their songs, something which could’ve resulted in a strange marriage of chaos and control. There does still feel like a ways to go for the band before they perfect their blueprint, but what is shown here is more than enough to wet the appetite.
It is towards the tail end of the album that EMPLOYED TO SERVE truly begin to flex their more experimental muscles. Opening the title track with another poetry piece, reflecting the same themes as the recital that ended their previous album. This links their work together nicely, as well as showing them to be a band that aren’t afraid to leave their own mark on their work. Towards the final moments of the song EMPLOYED TO SERVE revert back to their destructive ways, ending the song I apocalyptic fashion. It is towards the final moments of Half Life that the band begin to show a beautiful side to their music, with wailing guitar notes floating above sustained chords.
By the time Apple Tree has seen out the album in sombre fashion, The Warmth of a Dying Sun begins to settle in the listeners mind. With the pacing of the album being so clever, the change from seething aggression to more reflective post-hardcore musings isn’t jarring at all, in fact the transition feels natural. The Warmth of a Dying Sun is yet another step up for EMPLOYED TO SERVE, with them displaying all of their fantastic ability at every opportunity on this new record, whether it be the violence inducing riffs, the emotional clean vocals or even the talent to write more traditional songs. The Warmth of a Dying Sun is a triumph for the young band, and it even suggests that there’s more to go for these noise mongers.
Rating: 8/10
The Warmth of a Dying Sun is out now via Holy Roar Records.
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