EMPLOYED TO SERVE & CABAL (co-headline show)

eastside present
EMPLOYED TO SERVE
CABAL
(co-headline tour)
plus support Cold Culture
Sunday 8th November 2026
Newcastle University Students Union
Doors 7pm

Heavy metal is more than just music. For some, it is a fully fledged lifestyle, woven into their DNA. This is something Employed To Serve embodies. After rising from road warrior martyrs paying their dues to staking their claim as arena-ready contenders following a huge tour with Gojira, they’re here to take pride of place on the heavy metal world stage with their new album ‘Fallen Star’.
Vocalist Justine Jones and guitarist /co-vocalist Sammy Urwin first met in their teens, starting the band with the intention of standing shoulder to shoulder with the local scene bands they admired. Now, after evolving from the feral mathcore chaos of their early EPs to detonating a full-throttle career high with 2021 album ‘Conquering’, they’re clearly lifers; make that lifers with a mission…
“We want to fly the flag for heavy metal and the traditions that it holds,” offers Sammy, acknowledging his life-long love of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Metallica, iconic artists he now finds more inspiring than ever. “But at the same time we want to play our part in taking things forward.
“We’re both super nerdy about music; however, if you just want to turn up and enjoy the show, that’s good too. The question is: does the music do something for you? If so, awesome!”
“When I was younger, I hated that you had to be either a metalcore fan or an emo metal fan,” adds Justine. “There was such a big divide, whereas now it feels a lot more unified.”
The gospel that Employed To Serve are preaching is Heavy Metal Unity. In any group where passions run high there are inevitably factions: questions of authenticity, sonic purism and true kvlt gatekeepers sometimes lend this outsider art an oddly conservative air. But with streaming breaking down barriers and genres blending more potently than ever, they believe it’s time for a new era of inclusivity and open-mindedness. After all, whatever bands people are into, they’re still part of the same metal community.

Rooted in a wide array of musical influences ranging from black metal and hardcore, to death metal and industrial, CABAL have cemented themselves as a band at the cutting edge of the extreme metal scene, ready to tear down all genre borders.
CABAL first emerged from the the shadows in 2016 as their first release Purge pushed the boundaries of the extreme metal scene in their homeland. Two years later, their debut album Mark of Rot ripped CABAL out of the Danish underground, establishing the band as an international act with a promising future. Soon after, the band began playing their first big festivals and toured through Europe, Japan and North America. But the cultists had bigger plans..
CABAL released their sophomore album Drag Me Down in 2020 - a dark descent into a personal hell brought to life by crushing instrumentals, an oppressive atmosphere and dark personal…