So, music this time around. Anyone who’s got their ear to the ground will likely have heard of a new band on the scene called PRESIDENT. They’ve seemingly come out of nowhere and already have a spot at Download this year, fun right?
Masked and “anonymous” bands aren’t anything new, far from it. Going back to the 70s and 80s, the concept of hiding your face and playing music has been relatively common. Of course the degree of anonymity varies wildly. You had bands such as Kiss, British rock who wore makeup, you very much still knew who they were. Same with other genres artists, Daft Punk comes to mind, they initially showed their faces, quickly went to the robotic masks.
In modern metal (90s or so) you saw the rise of more masked bands, you had Slipknot, who are arguably one of the more famous bands to don the mask, and while members revealed their faces at different times, this was always a bit of an unoffical unmasking, it wasn’t until 2004 where they revealed their actual faces in an interview on one of their DVD’s.
Before Slipknot though, you had Mushroomhead, not a band I frequently listen to, but they don the mask quite religiously, and arguably they did it “first” – hitting the scene in 1993.
A bit more recently, you have bands like Ghost, not my cup of tea personally, but they took the masks and costumes to the next level and brought it fairly mainstream too. Their schtick being the Catholic churche but Satan. Papa being your lead singer and then “nameless ghouls” who originally represented elements, guitaris being fire, bassist water – you get the idea. But anonymity is a big thing with them, prior to 2017, no members had revealed their names – the instrumentalists just signed autographs as their element.
Even more recent you have Sleep Token, and at risk of being smited down by the cult like following of Sleep Token, I’m not a fan of them. I can’t even say why, I’m just not a fan. They have some good songs, catchy too but they’re definitely not a band I’d go “I really like Sleep Token”, but I don’t judge music taste and each to their own ultimately.
That being said, Sleep Token pushed the whole, anonymity side, they fought quite hard to keep their identities anonymous, their faces are always covered, they don’t talk on stage. The band members are simple called “Vessel, I, III, IV and Espera” and I believe to this date, no one truly knows who they are behind the mask.
Now I kind of get why they do it. The fame and sometimes infamy that comes with becoming a big band (and Sleep Token are arguably one of the biggest right now) can ruin a life completely, your entire life becomes public if you make it big, so remaining as anonymous as possible is very mush preferred by some people.
Anyway, what’s the point I’m trying to make here after such a long preamble…well…
PRESIDENT, hitting the Internet a few months ago, 4-5 months from what I can actually find, seemingly came out of nowhere as a random name spotted on the Download 2025 line-up, no one knew who they were – there was no music, very little social media presence and a website that essential read the following:
Citizens, the time has come. No names. No Past. No distractions. Only the mission ahead. At Download festival, the inauguration beings. Not with words, but with action. Not with empty promises, but with undeniable force. There will be no campaign, no debate, no opposition. Only one truth: President has arrived. The oath will be taken. The people will decide. History will be made.
Now, a lot of words and obviously striking similarities to the swearing in of world leaders. in parts – nothing really happened for around a month or so until a teaser came out from PRESIDENT. A man in a mask, some striking visuals of their logo and a short audio snippet – that’s it.
Speculation went truly insane, who the hell are these guys? What the fuck is going on, why are they playing Download?
That last question – Download 2025. Massive metal festival in the UK for those that don’t know. Had these guys listed playing the Dogtooth Stage, admittedly that’s generally where less known bands play, but still to get a spot at Download when you have no music actually released – odd right? So these guys clearly had connections somewhere in the industry.
From there, their social media went a bit quiet, a week later, another video, again super short of a man in a suit, facing away from the camera at the end of a church, holding the mask from the first clip…then nothing, for about a month.
Another cryptic video at the start of April 2025, masked man in a suit now in a hallway, again, about a month to the end of April, masked man sat down smoking…
Up until this point, the captions on the videos were super cryptic too. “We all choose to find hope”, “Because hope is choosing to find meaning”, “In a meaningless word”, now obviously they’re supposed to be read together.
And then, the 7th of May 2025, we got a longer clip, 30 seconds or so, of the actual song they’ve been teasing, mainly music but the last few seconds is a scream, admittedly heavily produced but a scream – and the caption stated the song would be dropped 16th of May 2025 – the Internet went crazy.
Speculations thrown about again, who the hell is it, specifically the lead singer, the man in the suit and mask…
Now, the Internet generally had a couple of schools of thought. One was a spin-off band from Sleep Token…the other was…Charlie Simpson.
Now, Charlie Simpson is a singer/songwrite from the good ol’ UK. He pretty much rocketed to fame when he hit the music scene in a little band called Busted.
Now, Busted are in no way metal, they’re realistically, cheesey pop music aimed at teenage girls of the 2000’s. The band members were handsome, fun looking, a bit crazy – all the things teenage girls loved. Honestly, the songs were catchy and their voices were good.
Now, some people don’t realise that Charlie had another band, one by the name of Fightstar. The story goes, Charlie started to resent the pop star lifestyle and fame, historically he’d loved rock music and Busted left him pretty unfulfilled musically – and ultimately Fightstar were born.
Fightstart are (yes are, I refuse to believe they’re no long together) I guess a post-hardcore band, heavy riffs, screams, strong cleans and meaninful lyrics.
Now, I’ll hold my hands up, I was one of the people that historically said “Ew, Charlie Simpson fronts Fightstar, must be shit” so many other people do the same, I’ll happily fight and die on the hill that anyone says so are wrong, or at least haven’t listened to them.
Fightstar were popular, four great albums up to 2015. 2015 is also when Busted got back together, likely this isn’t just a coincidence.
So how does this all correlate? The short scream in that clip, was undeniably a Charlie Simpson scream – he screams like not a lot of people I’ve heard, and it’s a great one.
Anyhow, lets skip to the 16th of May, the track was dropped – In the Name of the Father. The world listened, I listened…several times – hoenstly, it’s an amazing song. Perfect cleans, screams and riffs. Yes it’s autotuned, produced etc. but it’s a great track.
And listening to the full track just strengthens the Charlie Simpson theory, even with the produced vocals, you can tell it’s him, or at least hope it’s him…
All of this also ties in with PRESIDENT randomly being on the Download 2025 line-up with no songs, Charlie played Download 2024 with Busted, and honestly, it was a great set where they packed the tent and beyond. They were amazingly popular. It adds up.
Couple that with speculation that the bassist for PRESIDENT plays a lot like Matt Willis, the bassist of Busted, the drummer has also got speculation around him, Eddy Thrower, another post-hardcore band from good old blighty, the sound and playing style sounds exaclty like Thrower. Thrower also became the touring drummer for, and you guessed it, Busted in 2019. All of this just adds up.
The teasing didn’t end after this track, we got more. 29th of May, not long after In The Name of the Father, we got another clip “Take an oath” was the caption, then another, pivotal one on the 1st of June, “Never know what you’ll leave behind” – now this one…this one, shows the mask being taken off and placed on a desk…are they unmasking so early?
Their second track “Fearless” gets dropped on the 6th of June, another banger if I’m being honest, this has a few more cleans, again obviously Charlie but you get a better look at other members with the speculation basically being “This is Busted going metal”
At the end of Fearless, the mask gets taken off to show…no one fucking knows. It’s a non-descript make, short hair, staring at the camera. Internet explodes, refusing to actually believe it was a proper unmasking and this was just the band throwing us off the mark…and I believe it too.
Now…a lot of this makes me sound like I want the band to be unmasked, I don’t really. Honestly the music is brilliant, I’ve listened to both tracks several times and introduced others to them already. If the band, whoever they are, wants to be anonymous…let them. I just find this type of thing interesting and fun and keeps the scene much more exciting then “Here’s generic metalcore band number 500!” Now I’d listen to all of them, besides the point…
I guess we get more answers at Download 2025? And their “inaugural rally” in London on the 13th of June? Two days before they’re due to play at Download…so watch this pace I guess…