Employed To Serve return with bludgeoning new single ‘Dead Reckoning’, out now via Church Road Records, with a video to match.
Following their critically acclaimed record Fallen Star, the UK metal titans use the track to lead the charge into their next chapter. It arrives off the back of a mammoth 2025 that saw a spring headline tour, a stacked festival season and a huge European run alongside metalcore legends Killswitch Engage, during which the band found themselves inspired to start work on new material.
“When the track was being written, it was one of those situations where it exploded into existence, rather than having been carefully crafted,” says guitarist and vocalist Sammy Urwin. Lead vocalist Justine Jones adds that ‘Dead Reckoning’ taps into the band’s darker side and serves as a conduit to blow off steam, hoping listeners get the same release from it that the band do.
Long regarded as bastions of positivity within the metal scene, Employed To Serve here meet the harder aspects of life head on. The single is an ode to those finding their own way and trusting gut instinct as their only guide, a sentiment Jones drives home as she screams “against all odds, I find my way”.
‘Dead Reckoning’ comes via Jones and Urwin’s own Church Road Records, a pillar of the UK metal and alternative scene for almost a decade. After years building a roster of artists under the Church Road banner, the time felt right for the band to join it themselves, handing them complete control of their creative output. The track was recorded with longstanding collaborator Lewis Johns, who produced and mastered it.
The single lands ahead of a packed summer of festival dates and shows with In Flames, Unearth and Of Mice and Men. UK fans can catch the band at Radar Festival in Manchester on 2 August, part of a European run that also takes in Wacken Open Air, Tolminator, Leyendas del Rock, Vagos Metalfest and Dynamo Metalfest, wrapping up at Switzerland’s Wyssrüti Festival on 29 August.
