I am new to the Power Trip camp, thanks to my brother-n-law Jason “I Ran the Hucklebuck, before you were able to walk around the Brambles”.   Hailing from Texas, this crossover-thrash band released a pretty ass-kicking debut album, Manifest Decimation in 2013, which they now have bested with Nightmare Logic.  If you were a fan of D.R.I. from their 1986-1992 period, as well as some Cro-Mags (later albums) well Power Trip are for you.  I kept seeing the bands logo everywhere, and “shame, shame shame, everybody knows your name”, on me for not getting into the band a few years ago, better late than never.

Nightmare Logic picks right up where Manifest Decimation ended, pretty much.  Storming out the gates with “Soul Sacrifice” (no, this is not a Cathedral Cover!) ripping riff a the 40 second part.  Nice crossover-thrash crunch until the 1.47 fast riffing comes in, before the drums kick your teeth down your throat with a fast beat and quick, stop and go guitar riffing.  The song ends back to the opening groove, it opened with and man the pits have to be kicking at this part.

The title track opens with squealing guitar and a nice mid-paced part which has MOSH written all over it-if you love those D.R.I. crossover-thrash riffs and crunch, you will be wind-milling all day long to this.  This riff picks up pace with the drums about 30 seconds into the song and is crushingly awesome and Riley Gale’s vocals have that pissed off thrash/hardcore angst as he shouts and spews forth some angry vocals.  That fast awesome parts picks up again towards the end and a perfect way to finish the song and lop your head right off your shoulders, as you hold up the horns and do some Fist-Banging Mania.  The album closes with “Crucifixation”, a blazing album closer.  It’s fast, has stomps and just like the entire album is catchy as all hell.

Nightmare Logic is garnering some pretty great reviews and add mine to the collection.  The riffs really hold this SOB together, I mean everything else is great too, but man….those frickin’ riffs.  Excellent.  A fun album to continuously go back to all the time.  The production is great.  Excellent audible bass guitar, crisp drums and great vocals. While their debut album was well produced this is much better; cleaner sounding.  The other thing, while some crossover bands will be a little tongue-and-cheek, Power Trip are not playing that style.  This is serious no holds barred crossover-thrash metal.  Really the intermingling of both genres is seamless and nothing is out of place.

I will say this is a more thrash-oriented record, but there are enough crossover traits throughout this album to keep you happy. The booklet layout is nicely designed, but the album cover is a little tough to figure out what on earth is going on.  The more I look at it I can see the details, but by and large it looks like a mish mash of glop, from a distance.  Once you can see what’s going on it’s like an impressionist version of a war-torn area.  Regardless this is one of the strongest releases for 2017.   Power Trip are the real deal, delivering a monster album.

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