Employed To Serve: Greyer Than You Remember

Post-hardcore ruffians smash through the starting gates

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If the thought of a more thuggy, unmistakably British version of The Chariot floats your boat then rejoice, because Employed To Serve are just as unusual and thrilling as that definition sounds.

Greyer Than You Remember careers past in a blur of mangled riffing, odd time signatures, snotty gang vocals and the piercing screeches of Justine Jones. Opener Live Without sets the tone, sounding like a high-speed collision resulting in broken bones and shattered teeth, and the pace hardly drops throughout these 10 tracks.

No One’s Perfect, This Includes You will make you wince like having an open wound drenched in vinegar, and the rhythmic gear changes of Bury Yourself (Deep) are enough to give you motion sickness.

The only respite is the slow build of the closing As Cold As The Rest, which borrows heavily from Neurosis’s ‘slow-quiet to loud-heavy’ dynamism. For a band that have only been around a couple of years, this is a hell of a start./o:p

Stephen joined the Louder team as a co-host of the Metal Hammer Podcast in late 2021, eventually becoming a regular contributor to the magazine. He has since written hundreds of articles for Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Louder, specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal. He also presents the Trve. Cvlt. Pop! podcast with Gaz Jones and makes regular appearances on the Bangers And Most podcast.