In 2020, Riley Gale, frontman of the great Texan hardcore/thrash band Power Trip, died suddenly and tragically at the way-too-young age of 34. Gale's fans, friends, bandmates, and family members were all obviously devastated. Two years later, Power Trip guitarist Blake Ibanez launched Fugitive, a new band that continued very much in Power Trip's tradition and released some truly sick tracks.
At a 2023 Fugitive show in Austin, Power Trip played a surprise reunion set, with Gale's friend Seth Gilmore, frontman of Fugitive and Skourge, taking Gale's place. After settling a legal dispute with Gale's family, Gilmore officially became Power Trip's new singer. Now, they are releasing new music.
Power Trip have been steadily touring for the past couple of years, and they plan to release a new album next year. It'll be Power Trip's third LP, their first since 2017's monumental Nightmare Logic. The prospect of following that record, a full decade later, with a new singer, after the loss of their beloved frontman — it's a huge load.
Today, Power Trip share two new tracks that accomplish the daunting task of picking up where Nightmare Logic let off. Power Trip recorded their new tracks "Precinct 3" and "Scavenger" with big-deal metal producer Jacob Hansen. They're both fast, frenetic thrashers with absolutely huge riffs and chant-bark vocals that clearly draw from the same places as Riley Gale did without biting his style. (When Power Trip were first active, Seth Gilmore's band Skourge were among their closest peers.) "Precinct 3," which has an Eric Richter-directed video, ends with an absolutely tremendous breakdown.
If you're going to release new Power Trip music under these absolutely terrible conditions, this is the way to do it. When we were writing this, we wondered what Riley would have wanted to write about. So once we decided on that approach, it honestly came really easily — the lyrics were flowing, and it just felt like the right way to kick off this new chapter and honor him.
I think he would have been stoked to see it come to fruition. Recording worked out really well for us because [Jacob Hansen] has the knowledge of making these big records, but also comes from the late '80s extreme metal underground. We're tough to please because we want something that sounds current, but most importantly we want it to sound like us, however that comes out.
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