Albums of the Week: 10/05/19 (Employed to Serve, Aaron West & The Roaring Twenties, We Never Learned To Live)

Employed to Serve – Eternal Forward Motion

9.5/10

Best Tracks: Beneath It All, Force Fed, Reality Filter, Owed Zero

FFO: Code Orange, Rolo Tomassi, Deftones

Woking’s own Employed To Serve have, in recent years, become the band in underground British metal. Their 2017 rager The Warmth of a Dying Sun was heralded as a modern classic upon its release, garnering album of the year awards left, right, and centre. In the years since, the band have become one of the most talked-about names in heavy music, and subsequently signed to Spinefarm Records.

On Eternal Forward Motion, ETS have taken the groove-laden hardcore of their sophomore record and simply improved on it in every possible way: it’s tighter, heavier, more technically proficient, and more explorative within their sound. Vocalist Justine Jones is in a league of her own, nailing every single word in her own distinct style with crystal-clear articulation and a gutful of fury. Instrumentally, too, the album is unbelievably brilliant, with feverish drumming and thunderous bass laying the foundation for a masterclass in the art of the riff. Lead guitarist Sammy Urwin (who also does a good chunk of the vocals here) knows his shit, and so the guitarwork all across the record is its biggest draw; the groove is stepped up, and songs like ‘Force Fed’ come close to rivalling the catchiness of ‘I Spend My Days’ (the big-hitter on Warmth).

The record also sees Employed To Serve experiment with clean vocal hooks more boldy than on their previous work. This can be best heard on the spellbinding closer, ‘Bare Bones On A Blue Sky’, which has echoes of one of last year’s best releases in Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It (from former label-mates Rolo Tomassi). Of course, that’s not to say the band aren’t still as heavy as a blue whale with a stomach full of concrete. There are countless moments and breakdowns on this album which make me screw up my face like I’ve just smelled something foul, and it’s absolutely glorious – from ‘Dull Ache Behind My Eyes’ in all its beat-down glory to the deranged, mesmerising, Dillinger Escape Plan-esque lead guitar passages of ‘Owed Zero’ (my personal favourite on the album).

There are very few bands in Britain who deserve as much unanimous praise as Employed To Serve, and thankfully, they still seem to be getting it. With a front cover of Kerrang!, countless 5/5 and 10/10 reviews, and a number one spot on the iTunes metal chart under their belts just in the past week, Eternal Forward Motion marks yet another career high-point  for the band. It’s my album of the week, and I can guarantee it’ll be pretty high up in my end-of-year list too.

Aaron West & The Roaring Twenties – Routine Maintenance

8/10

Best Tracks: Just Sign the Papers, Bloodied Up in a Bar Fight, Rosa & Reseda

FFO: The Wonder Years, The Hotelier, Bruce Springsteen

Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell spends most of his time focusing on being the frontman of the best pop-punk band of all time (yeah, I said it) in The Wonder Years, but his more folky side-project in Aaron West & The Roaring Twenties is not to be overlooked.

For the unfamiliar, all of the Aaron West material is tied together by a beautiful narrative focused around the life of the eponymous protagonist, a role wholeheartedly played by Campbell himself. To put it mildly, the character has been through some shit thus far; 2014’s We Don’t Have Each Other details the worst year of West’s life, from his divorce to the loss of his father. This record, then, has been described as his “redemption arc”, through which he fights against the unhealthy coping mechanisms of alcoholism and social isolation. The way this narrative is woven throughout the sound and lyricism of this record is properly impressive.

Routine Maintenance boasts some incredible songwriting, and countless hooks which are simultaneously infectious and heart-wrenching. The chorus of  ‘Just Sign the Papers’ will stay with you for days on end, with West baring his soul in regard to the divorce process as he sings “Let's find an end to the gloom/I'm sorry for every single thing I put you through”. Soupy’s voice is, as always, note-perfect and bursting at the seams with emotion, lending the whole thing another layer of depth and resonance. You’ll find that the choruses stick with you both because of their brilliant grasp on the melodies and the actual lyrics which form them.

Sonically, Routine Maintenance finds a sweet spot between the earnest, lyrically-involved pop-punk of The Wonder Years and a classic, heartfelt, folky Americana sound. Dynamics play a big role here, in that it's often able to shift from driven and passionate (on something like ‘Rosa & Reseda’) to subtle and considered (in ‘Wildflower Honey’). The use of brass and horn sections is reminiscent of some of Bruce Springsteen’s earlier tracks; ‘Runnin’ Toward the Light’ sounds like ‘Born To Run’ for a new generation of (much more emo) kids, right down to the horn melody. It’s exciting, it’s touching, and it’s impossible to listen to just once.

We Never Learned To Live – The Sleepwalk Transmissions

8/10

Best Tracks: Permafrost, Luma Non Luma, Owari

FFO: Black Peaks, Rolo Tomassi, Hell Is For Heroes

In yet another stellar release from Britain’s greatest record label, Holy Roar, Brighton-based outfit We Never Learned To Live have just dropped one of the year’s best concept albums in the form of The Sleepwalk Transmissions.

The follow-up to 2015’s Silently, I Threw Them Skyward is a meticulously-crafted post-hardcore project which leans heavily on the “post” without scrimping too much on the “hardcore”. There’s headbanging, doomy rhythm guitar and bass counterbalanced with lead guitar glazed in lingering, ghostly reverb, which often drifts off to create its own ambient soundscape after a particularly heavy section. Other parts of the record evoke 2000s brit-rock like Hell Is For Heroes and YOURCODENAMEIS:MILO, finding a sweet spot between energised riffing and fantastically British-sounding vocal harmonies. In fact, the vocal work all across The Sleepwalk Transmissions is engaging and unique, as frontman Seán Mahon is able to switch between furiously emotive screams and beautiful melodies on a dime (see ‘Luma Non Luma’).

Though it’s only 44 minutes long, The Sleepwalk Transmissions feels, in many ways, like quite an epic feat. Through the band’s use of post-rock tropes, ambient soundscapes, complex lyrical themes, and structural experimentation, they achieve a feeling of impressive scope which mirrors the record’s cover artwork: it feels like an adventure onto a new, technologically advanced alien planet. Indeed, the concept of this album is based in sci-fi, with track titles like ‘Android Anaesthetist’ and ‘Wounds Like Wires’ setting the scene for the rich narrative and metaphors within their lyrics.

The Sleepwalk Transmissions looks to be the breakthrough record for We Never Learned To Live, and rightly so. They've created a niche for themselves in "sci-fi post-hardcore", and their unwavering commitment to it deserves a whole lot of respect.