Hailing out of Dallas, Texas, Power Trip are a pretty intense thrash metal group. With a very prominent early 80’s thrash sound mixed with some crossover thrash influences and some touches of grindcore and powerviolence in terms of the rhythmic assaults, this five piece mean business. With their debut album ‘Manifest Decimation’ getting some serious praise, the Lone Star State outfit are back again with one thing in mind – bringing the heavy weapons and doing some serious damage. And for those who doubt them… They are touring with Napalm Death and Lock-Up, do I need to emphasize their intensity any further?
Anyway, the take no prisoners mentality is pretty much painted across this release. Opening track “Soul Sacrifice” brings out the big guns with a huge, crushing thrash groove which builds the intensity and conjures an atmosphere which lingers with an ominous feel. This is all shattered when one big vocal roar signals the start of things to come. Exploding to life with a flurry of thrash riffs which seem to travel faster than a cheetah with a rocket up its arse, the blitzkrieg approach works wonders. Pounding bass, relentless drums, harshly growled vocals spat out with venom dripping from every word are accompanied by charging guitars which bring back memories of early years Slayer, Megadeth and even Metallica (you know… When they were thrash -!- ).
It continues like this for the remainder of this 33 minute long release. Eight tracks filled with explosive speed, furious riffs, scathing vocal assaults and a rhythm section which at times feels like it should belong in a grindcore band. The wild and primal nature of the music, expressed in the wailing leads which scream out in a frenzy, complimenting the chaotic pulse of the music beneath them goes hand in hand with the powerful vocal approach which at times seems like it could be someone impersonating John tardy on PCP. It’s easily one of the most intense musical works to be released outside of the extreme metal realms in the past few years.
From the explosive “Firing Squad” which manages to blend the insane speed with subtle but powerful groove laden elements to the slightly more controlled but still smothering title track “Nightmare Logic” which adds a crushing feel in places with a haunting atmosphere for added effect, to the closing 1-2 combo of “If Not Us, Then Who?” which screams out its old school punk influences, to “Crucifixion” which closes the album in a similar manner to how it opened up – intense thrash which will have many furiously windmill headbanging along, this album is something you need to brace yourselves for.
In recent years, there has been a distinct lack of classic minded thrash which grabs you by the soft parts and squeezes until you join in the frenzy. Bands like Axegressor, Switchtense, Evil Invaders and Nervosa have brought some of the bite back and reminded us all of how thrash used to be all about the speed, not the more modern groove orientated approach and in turn, old titans like Destruction, Exodus and Anthrax have brought back some of that shine from yesteryear, but they have all lacked that brute force and hit and run mentality which Thrash was so often associated with. Luckily for us, Power Trip managed to find it and drag it back kicking and screaming and reminded us all of how Thrash should sound.
The only logic in this nightmare is listening to this album repeatedly.
(9/10 Fraggle)
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