ALBUM REVIEW: Blood Of Your Empire – President
So much of the discourse around UK alt-metal band PRESIDENT has been about SLEEP TOKEN. From the superficial similarities (masked members) to the sonic ones (djent riffs combined with pop sensibilities) it’s hard to find discussion of this band that doesn’t revolve around their fellow Brits. Wade further into internet music spaces and hear cries of “industry plant”, with conspiracies around the band’s sudden ascent to popularity being just as common as SLEEP TOKEN comparisons (in reality, PRESIDENT’s lead singer is rumoured to be Charlie Simpson of the band FIGHTSTAR, a band with established credibility and recognition, which makes the “industry plant” ramblings feel far-fetched). With the amount of talk surrounding the band, comparisons made, and the rumour mill at work, you would think that PRESIDENT’s music itself would be worthy of discussion. Unfortunately, the music is by far the least interesting thing about the band.
We don’t want this review to just be a rehashing of the aforementioned comparisons, but the biggest crossover the two bands have in sound (outside of fusing together pop and metal, but they’re far from the only acts doing that) is that both bands gesture towards metal music without fully committing to the genre. This isn’t claiming that either band is “not metal”, because frankly that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that feeble indicators towards metal without going all the way leads to an unsatisfying genre stew that isn’t poppy enough to be catchy and isn’t nearly heavy enough to be exciting. PRESIDENT songs frequently oscillate from digitally-altered singing over trap beats and synthesisers to screaming over sauceless djent riffs. At least a band like BAD OMENS has enough standout vocal performances and memorable songwriting to make their pop-rock with breakdowns worth spinning more than once. PRESIDENT pushes for the same audience but lacks the chops in terms of vocals, instrumentals, and most other things.
From the outset the band’s latest, Blood Of Your Empire, improved from their debut EP, King Of Terrors, which suffered from such an overabundance of autotune and other vocal manipulations that it was hard to focus on anything else. Perhaps the band heard this criticism and took it to heart, because the vocals are more raw this time around. Unfortunately, that does not make them inherently good. PRESIDENT’s anonymous vocalist occasionally finds a pocket where he finds a pleasant melody or reaches an impressive note, but too often his voice is a POST MALONE-esque warble on the verses only to stretch into a strained snarl for the radio-ready choruses. Again, it’s nothing new in the world of SXM Octane, but PRESIDENT makes bands like PAPA ROACH look impressive in comparison.
Lead single Angel Wings shows what PRESIDENT is going to repeat for nine other songs: sterile modern metal, complete with Zakk Cervini snare plugin and all. This song does at least have a fun melodic riff that comes in during the breakdown that works as its conclusion, and it’s perhaps the only time listening where you feel like you’re putting on metal music. Honestly, it’s perhaps the only real moment where the guitars aren’t blaring staccato chugs. Dark Heaven is replete with chintzy synths and the rather unflattering lyric, “Gather round children, sing hallelujah”, which is a bad line in itself, but it’s soiled more by the melodramatic delivery. Pink Noise flutters about on wings of drum and bass only to crash face first into the asphalt with what is handedly the worst sounding chorus of the album.
The second half of the album doesn’t fare much better, but you can at least feel the band trying to be more creative. Sleepwalker has by far the best chorus on the album, with a genuinely pleasant melody carrying it above the rest of the album. This Will Divide Us is another exercise in patience-testing vocals, but the production in the second half of the track does grow more interesting with building synths and flickering guitars. This song isn’t good, per se, but it shows PRESIDENT using electronics as more than just window-dressing. A project embracing these stylings in hard rock/metal music (and better vocals) could genuinely be a standout release. This is not that. Hate Figure is a stumble into nu-metal, and it goes over as poorly as you’d expect. Closer White Devil is built around a surprisingly fun piano loop that would be good in a song that wasn’t a garish marriage of dance-pop and metal.
PRESIDENT are truly just products of the environment of contemporary hard rock music. This style, or fusion of styles, is what the people are looking for. Depending on the day, that’s not a bad thing. PRESIDENT just isn’t particularly good at it.
Rating: 4/10
Blood Of Your Empire is out now via Atlantic Records.
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