PRESIDENT have become metal’s most talked-about newcomers, so does their debut deliver on the hype?

Words by Felix Bartlett | Sep 03, 2026

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Metal is going through an interesting phase right now. Sleep Token, Ghost and President are just a handful of masked icons gracing stages and taking the world by storm, each shrouded in mystery and backed by a cult-like following. Nobody quite does it like them, engulfing audiences and listeners alike in their own twisted worlds.

To say the hype surrounding President’s debut album has been high would be a serious understatement. A band who have outgrown venues in an incredibly short space of time, they’ve left audiences begging for new material to fill that one-hour slot. Blood Of Your Empire certainly delivers, and while there’s a heavy dose of what we’ve already heard, there are some absolute gems hidden among this ambitious debut. With its dancefloor-ready electronics, huge riffs and willingness to ruffle a few feathers, it’s a record that’s sure to satisfy those gagging for more while proving President have plenty more tricks up their sleeves.

The job here was to build on last year’s King Of Terrors EP, and they’ve done it mainly by pushing the electronics further than most bands in this lane would dare. You hear it in Pink Noise, where technical, purist post-hardcore collides with flickering synths and electronica, the song’s mood shifting almost bar to bar before an experimental bridge drags the pace right down, just so it can explode all over again. Dark Heaven goes even further, opening on a blaring, drum machine-driven intro before flirting with an unexpected R&B lilt, piercing synth work holding everything together beneath a chorus built to fill arenas.

They’re just as sharp when the guitars take the wheel. Angel Wings is a turbulent, shapeshifting opener, sliding from a glossy, almost summery synth intro into heavy, emotive riffs that soundtrack a lurch from existential doubt into full-blown rage, complete with a fleeting movie-dialogue sample that nods to a trope this genre doesn’t lean on nearly enough anymore. Doom Loop, meanwhile, wrestles with the passing of time through hypnotic rhythms, glitching vocals in the chorus and a constant push and pull between propulsive synths and stabbing guitar work, channelling something close to Nine Inch Nails filtered through more modern metalcore instincts.

That ambition spills into the record’s back half, where the songwriting turns inward and the styles get stranger. Mercy leans hardest on the guitars, its layered, harmonised chords collapsing into frantic screams before easing back into melody. Its extended outro bleeds into a tape-hiss passage that carries you straight into Sleepwalker, an old-school, post-emo cut thick with dialogue clips and synth accents that feels like a deliberate look back at simpler times.

Dionysus is the emotional peak, all stark piano and huge drums under a vocal delivery that flirts, oddly, with 2000s pop-rock phrasing before the screaming and towering guitars kick back in, a combination that shouldn’t work and somehow does. This Will Divide Us then dives into full experimentation, taking what sounds like a lo-fi sketch and polishing it into something genuinely strange without losing the emotional core. Hate Figure, featuring Ando San, swings for rap-rock swagger on the back of some of the album’s best drumming, though the muscle doesn’t land quite as cleanly as elsewhere, and closer White Devil throws jazz-tinged, sample-heavy piano into the mix, teasing you back into a verse right when a chorus feels inevitable. It’s a strange note to end on, though not an unwelcome one.

Even so, when President hit their stride, the appeal is obvious. Several of these songs feel built to be screamed and wept to in equal measure, tracking a masked frontman’s search for catharsis that never quite resolves. Needless to say it’s evident that the masked crusaders are going to be bringing one hell of a show with them on their upcoming tour later this year.

Verdict: 💀💀💀💀

For fans of: Sleep Token, Archithects, Bad Omens

Blood Of Your Empire is released on September 4 via Atlantic.