“I can still taste the thunder in your soul.”
PRESIDENT is a group that had largely escaped my notice until recently. Emerging in early 2025 with their debut single, “In the Name of The Father,” the anonymous collective’s prior marketing campaign went entirely unnoticed by yours truly. And yet, before I even had a chance to get a taste of PRESIDENT’s sound when this seemingly polarizing track dropped in late spring, what immediately caught my attention in relevant comments sections was a striking mix of enthusiastic cheers and indifferent sighs. The words “industry plant” may have been muttered once or twice. But this only further piqued my curiosity, as I had thought to myself, “How could a debut single garner such a mixed reception so quickly?” Even if this outfit had some familiar faces lurking underneath its guise, I found myself perplexed.
Of course, the aforementioned “presidential” campaign that I had missed might’ve accounted for my confusion to some degree, as before the release of “In the Name of The Father”, PRESIDENT had already managed to create a buzz, as rumors and whispers of the identities of those involved were circulating in earnest well before any music was made available. Once I set aside this preliminary detective work and finally listened to this initial offering for myself, it quickly became clear why the reception had been so mixed. While the chorus is certainly catchy, the rest of the track offers little that stands out. Nearly every element feels like a rehash of a style that’s already lost its shine, especially as skepticism toward similar acts like Sleep Token and Bad Omens continues to grow. Even PRESIDENT’s choice to present themselves as an anonymous, masked collective seems like an attempt to replicate the lightning-in-a-bottle success of the former, but they fall flat on their faces in the process. With its formulaic alt-metal structure and an overwhelming flood of vocal effects on Mr. President’s voice, the track at times feels like it could’ve been cobbled together by generative AI, perhaps intentionally so. Either way, I walked away from this thing wholly unimpressed, despite ashamedly catching myself nodding along to the chorus once or twice.
Despite a rocky start, I kept an open mind, as “In the Name of The Father” was revealed to be one of six tracks from the upcoming debut EP King of Terrors, leaving plenty of downtime for PRESIDENT to catch their stride. Much to my dismay, however, the rest of this project turned out to be even more creatively bankrupt than I had feared. Worse still, the performances themselves take a hit, falling well below what was at least a passable effort on “In The Name of The Father.” Second in both release and chronological track order, follow-up single “Fearless” is easily a contender for one of the weakest songs in recent memory. From the very first notes—its opening keys paired with 808 trap beats—I was hit with an unfortunate sense of déjà vu, as it sounds almost indistinguishable from something Sleep Token might release as a B-side to Even in Arcadia. To say this cut resembles an outtake from an album already dismissed as shallow and lifeless by both Sleep Token fans and haters alike really captures just how dreadful an experience King of Terrors truly is.
The title runner-up song “RAGE” is fitting, perfectly reflecting how I feel about myself for choosing to endure this EP time and time again in a vain attempt to understand just what exactly PRESIDENT are trying to do here. This time, PRESIDENT find themselves almost fully submerged in pop territory, and the outcome of such a venture is exactly what you’d anticipate. The dominant pop sections come across as repetitive, dull, and frankly irritating, especially as the grating vocal effects remain on display, while the downtuned metal climax layered on top feels cheap and undeserved as a result. “RAGE” might be the lowest point in the fortunately brief runtime of King of Terrors, serving as a glaring example of everything that’s wrong with their pop-metal contemporaries—and a clear musical blueprint of what to avoid if you want to sound even halfway engaging in 2025.
“Destroy Me” is yet another alt-metal/pop hybrid—this time featuring a groundbreaking and wholly unexplored innovation in the modern metal soundscape: a breakdown. Seriously, just over halfway through the project, the only real shift PRESIDENT have incorporated is a marginal increase in their heaviness factor. Then again, as another pre-EP single, this might’ve been their attempt to win back the reaction YouTubers—most of whom have long since moved on to bigger and better things. “Destroy Me” may be heavier, but it is no more or less creative than any of its predecessors.
By the time “Dionysus” and “Conclave” roll around, I find myself asking, “Do I even care anymore?” With more than half the runtime gone and not a single memorable moment so far, it feels like too little, too late—even if these final tracks had anything worthwhile to offer. Spoiler alert: they don’t. Although amusingly enough, “Conclave” manages to be the most blatant Sleep Token knockoff on the entire EP—a remarkable feat, given how heavily PRESIDENT have already leaned on that influence. Without addressing any of the rumors regarding the band’s personnel (you can look into this yourself), it is genuinely perplexing as to how King of Terrors ended up sounding so uninspired. The most positive sentiment I can give is that “In the Name of The Father” as a single is listenable at best. It’s truly unfortunate that PRESIDENT have only continued to fumble this inauguration campaign of theirs ever since. It’s safe to say that, at least for the time being, my vote lies elsewhere.
2/10
King of Terrors releases on September 26th, and you can pre-order it here.