Mysterious masked band PRESIDENT has arrived with debut single In The Name Of The Father, gaining over 520,000 views in just three days. But who exactly are they?
There’s a new name echoing through the heavy music underground, and it’s arriving loud, cryptic, and completely faceless. Meet PRESIDENT, the mysterious band that’s just unleashed their debut track In The Name Of The Father.
With little more than cryptic social media promotion and a surprise Download Festival slot (more on that later) and no clear identity, PRESIDENT dropped their first single on Friday. The single was released through King Of Terrors/ADA, blending cinematic metal with raw chaos and vocals reminiscent of Dayseeker. Within just 72 hours, their debut racked up over 520,000 views on YouTube, a staggering number for a group that popped up seemingly out of nowhere.
You can listen to PRESIDENT’s debut track and watch the band’s music video here:
Their arrival hasn’t just sparked streams, but a wildfire of online speculation. Is it a new supergroup? An art project? A marketing stunt? It’s hard to say, but it’s got the internet working overtime on theories. Rumours point to ties with Busted and Fightstar frontman Charlie Simpson, but PRESIDENT’s entire aesthetic is engineered to deflect attention away from who’s behind the curtain.
Instead, the band is focusing on the vision – one that thrives on anonymity, intensity, and what they describe as a “republic of the underground.” Their first “presidential address”, In The Name Of The Father, hits like a sermon for the end times, pairing harsh industrial tones with haunting melodies and lyrics fixated on mortality and fear.
The band PRESIDENT appeared from the shadows at the end of February, with an ambitious first post to Instagram. Around the same time, they appeared on the Download Festival lineup with a slot at 4:25pm on the Dogtooth stage. The festival poster simply shows a masked figure awash in red neon, giving little else away. The festival announcement alone had the internet scrambling to work out exactly who the band was, given a billing on such a massive festival for an unknown is relatively unheard of.
This speculation lead to many wondering if PRESIDENT has ties to Sleep Token, another masked heavyweight with a penchant for mystery and clues. Given Sleep Token is one of the Download headliners, fans reckon they might be onto something – and with both bands managed by Future History Management, as well as PRESIDENT’s first post appearing the same day as Sleep Token’s “Show Me How To Dance Forever” website that kicked off the promotional period and announcement of Even in Arcadia, there’s plenty of threads seemingly connecting the two.
Whether it’s a simple coincidence that two masked bands hold multiple similarities is yet to be seen, and the information currently available does certainly point to Simpson, rather than any direct association with Sleep Token beyond sharing management teams. While we won’t be getting into the weeds on all of the ties to the former Fightstar frontman, the evidence is certainly piling up – although it’s unlikely we’ll get any confirmation on the identity of PRESIDENT any time soon (or at all).
For now, PRESIDENT are letting the music speak – and the numbers speak even louder. Half a million views in a matter of days suggests this isn’t just a one-off stunt. It’s a movement building from the shadows, already too loud to ignore.
Whether you buy into the mystery or not, one thing’s clear: PRESIDENT has arrived, and they’ve come to make noise.
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