Crossover thrash veterans Power Trip return with their sophomore slab of DRI inspired madness, Nightmare Logic. Opening salvo “Soul Sacrifice” is a powerful one that doesn’t immediately launch headlong into a powerful riff. Instead, it opts for a slow building one that pays dividends.
Chugging into view not long after is the excellently titled “Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe).” Vocalist Riley Gale’s shouted vocals fit the music excellently and hearken back to the ‘80s with elements of Leeway also on display.
Chrish Ulsh is making his debut on drums here after giving up his guitar duties a few years ago. If the beginning of “Firing Squad” is any indication of his ability level, stay the hell away from his drum kit or get hurt! The guitars of Rossover Ibanez and Nick Stewart could easily have been mistaken for Woody Weatherman and Reed Mullin of Corrosion of Conformity; much of what they did on Animosity and what they recaptured with their last two albums in particular.
Power Trip are great at adjusting their levels of intensity on each song, leading to a more varied that you would think listening experience. On “Waiting Around to Die” we are reminded about how we have all caused our own destruction. The title track also serves to remind us how politicians seem to ruin everything.
All in all, Power Trip continue to build off of their surprising debut Manifest Decimation and show that crossover thrash is a vibrant beast of a subgenre almost 30 years after DRI coined the term to describe their violent combination of thrash metal and hardcore. Nightmare Logic is the thrash metal album we need in 2017, one that helps to paint the dystopian present and future we are facing and not a moment too soon. We need this now, more than ever.
(released February 24, 2017 on Southern Lord Recordings)
