Donald Trump may be the worst president the world was ever seen, but PRESIDENT— the masked, much-maligned, definitely-not-an-industry-plant band— aren’t so far behind. 2025’s ‘King Of Terrors’ EP was a dark omen, like humanity was being punished for its crimes against heavy metal: if we have to give any credit to the group’s full-length debut ‘Blood Of Your Empire,’ we’d have to admit that it isn’t quite as stomach-churning as its predecessor. It does still have us begging for an impeachment though.

Modern metalcore has often been criticised for its bastardisations of alt-pop, R&B and electronica, and PRESIDENT are still set on their mission to truly wring the towel dry. The anonymous cohort collect new genres like Thanos gathers infinity stones, twisting and distorting each and every one into an empty shell of its former self— the quirky piano loops on closer ‘White Devil’ aren’t celebrating jazz so much as they’re p*ssing on its grave, and the truly insufferable rapping that dominates ‘Hate Figure’ is similarly egregious. ‘King Of Terrors’ only made its way into the metalcore camp by the skin of its teeth, and ‘Blood Of Your Empire’ is even further removed from the realm of heavy music. The record’s theming is quite accurate, in a way: just like we said last year, PRESIDENT’s approach to new genres is almost imperial.

Opener ‘Angel Wings’ is handy, in that it makes our job as reviewers rather easy: almost every issue we have with the album is summed up right at the beginning, on a track that was somehow selected as a lead single. Even if you can find merit in the song’s larger-than-life choruses and generic blasts of guitar, these elements have no business rubbing shoulders with the bargain-bin drum programming and cringeworthy rapping PRESIDENT insist on shoving in your face. For metalcore’s answer to Jelly Roll, it isn’t enough to scrape away every modicum of detail from your production and every ounce of humanity from your vocals— they also need to be thrown into a Cronenberg monster of an album, where every horrifying limb is another disparate idea that doesn’t stick the landing.

Now, we did begrudgingly admit that ‘Blood Of Your Empire’ isn’t as garish as the EP that kicked off this regrettable discography, and to their credit, PRESIDENT do seem (at least in places) to have a more distinct idea of what kind of music they want to be making this time around: the roughest edges from ‘King Of Terrors’ have, thank the lord, been sanded down a touch. ‘DOOM LOOP’ is like the final boss of TikTok metal, assembling a display of pitch corrected vocal layers and skittering drum patterns busy enough to hook even the most dopamine-obsessed listeners— the track is so maximalist that it actually wraps around to be quite entertaining, even if by accident. As far as true standouts are concerned, the droning guitars and genuinely emotional chorus of ‘Mercy’ stand alone: yes, the record’s only noteworthy song reads like diet-Deftones.

As for the rest of this material, ‘Blood Of Your Empire’ has a wealth of generic breakdowns and forgettable melodies in its holster: in that way, PRESIDENT are like the richest men in metal’s graveyard. ‘dark heaven’ and ‘This Will Divide Us’ both have some promising textures thrown into the mix, but neither track can outrun the plodding verses and grating vocal processing the band are, undoubtedly for worse, known for— at least they fare better than the likes of ‘Pink Noise,’ ‘Sleepwalker’ and ‘Dionysus,’ which may as well have been spat out by ChatMGK. Even when the band manage to cobble together some half-decent songwriting, their adoration for irritating samples and alternative rock clichés is always there to suck the life from the album, which was already dripping with corporate oversight from the off.

‘Blood Of Your Empire’ is a meaningful step up for the latest dime-a-dozen masked metalcore band plastered all over your social media, genuinely: ‘DOOM LOOP’ and ‘Mercy’ run circles around anything ‘King Of Terrors’ could muster, and there are some honest-to-god promising ideas scattered across these ten tracks. In the process of putting this project together though, PRESIDENT have driven the nail into their own coffin by confirming that they really do have nothing to say. Their full-length debut is dominated by empty platitudes and unfortunate decisions— the one true moment of clarity shines through on ‘Hate Figure,’ a monument to just how unlikeable the band are.