Employed To Serve - Eternal Forward Motion Ever since Employed to Serve got well renowned recognition for their last album ‘The Warmth Of A Dying Sun’ their popularity has soared. One would think with their new found claim to fame that their sound would change to reach other genre demographics in rock to appease new fans. This hasn’t seemed to be the case as they have stuck to their abrasive and electric roots. We get the same unrelenting instrumentality we have always enjoyed from the five piece band with ‘Eternal Forward Motion’. From there we get treasures such as ‘Force Fed’, which still maintains the style that the first track has already introduced to us, but what makes ‘Force Fed’ so different is the feature of clean vocals, something the band hasn’t really done up to this point with their music vocally. Please don’t mistake the presence of clean vocals as being soft, as by no means is this subdued at all. It is the kind of difference old and new fans will enjoy as it doesn’t give up on their relentless musical nature. In fact it only makes for a riskier, bolder appearance on the album Other moments such as ‘Beneath It All’ bring a whole other kind of heavy nature into play with its chugging guitars and chaotic vocals that really bring this to the forefront. ‘Sore Tooth Twin’ is by far the stand out attraction, as it is one of the softer hits that brings something different to the listener with an interlude that gravitates to the hard punch heavy guitars and violent drums we have enjoyed this whole time from ‘Eternal Forward Motion’ onward. This album is overtly heavy and is a fun musical roller coaster ride from start to finish. We get an angry thrashing as it concludes with the outstanding and unique ‘Bare Bones On A Blue Sky’. This is without a doubt a great album. SA
Am I Dead Yet? - Self-Titled ‘Leaving Me Behind’ starts with an ominous violin before whistling a tune reminiscent of a western film. The vocals are backed by a soft drum beat, and are almost spoken word. The guitar becomes more prominent throughout the song, and there's even a slow guitar solo midway through. The outro has a mixture of guitars, drums, and piano, and finishes with the same whistle, making it come full circle in an exciting way. ‘Solid Gone’ starts off with the outro of previous track ‘Loneliness’, and there’s a drum beat that sounds electronic in the background, adding to the variety of instruments used. Unfortunately, there’s a synthesiser that’s used so often throughout that it becomes tiring after a while. Furthermore, the vocals are very one dimensional, making each song hard to differentiate.
‘Joe Meek Shall Inherit The Earth’ has some very strange lyrical content, including the memorable opening line being, “Britain’s got talent/You bet the f*ck it has”, whilst the instruments sound like they’ve been taken out of a Bruce Springsteen song and distorted a bit. ‘Ghosted’ adds interesting diversity with its toe tapping drum beat and sounds almost jazz like with the strings. Other highlights on the album include the heart thumping bass on ‘People Are Dangerous’, the smooth rock of ‘Wasted On Me’, strange eerie synthesisers on ‘Futuristic Paranoia’, and a unique piano piece being played at the start of ‘Fake Flowers’. ‘Thanks For Sharing’ has a huge bass riff that echoes throughout, and therefore makes it a very sombre closing. In conclusion, Am I Dead Yet?’s self titled LP is a very interesting collection of fantastic and mysterious elements. KB