Band:	Power Trip
Album:	Nightmare Logic
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	February 22, 2017
Guest review by:	omne metallum

01. Soul Sacrifice
02. Executioner's Tax (Swing Of The Axe)
03. Firing Squad
04. Nightmare Logic
05. Waiting Around To Die
06. Ruination
07. If Not Us Then Who
08. Crucifixation

It's rare that an album comes along and makes you double take so fast you snap your neck and your eyes bulge up and blow out like Cohaagen in Total Recall, but that is what Power Trip achieved with 2017's Nightmare Logic.

I remember when this album came out, it felt like a breath of fresh air in a genre often regarded as creatively stagnant; blasting away its competition, Nightmare Logic was a statement of intent to break down walls and put thrash squarely at the centre of metal again. While this may look like hyperbole in hindsight, it doesn't diminish what a modern classic Power Trip had crafted. If the flood of resurgent thrash didn't spill out, it wasn't for Nightmare Logic's lack of quality.

Blending crossover and thrash with the intensity of death metal and some groove thrown in for good measure, Power Trip wield one hell of a powerful and overwhelming attack. This isn't so much a listening experience than it is a nuclear detonation, so be forewarned before you crank up the volume and shatter all glass within a mile radius.

Varying its point of attack, Nightmare Logic is an album that can offer something to anyone. From the mid-paced title track to the frantic barrage of "Firing Squad" through the instant classic that is the groove-laden "Executioner's Tax (Swing Of The Axe)", one of these bullets will have your name on it. While the band vary their style, they infuse each track with an undeniable energy and character that allows the album as a whole to flow seamlessly.

The band are as tight a unit as The A-Team, each with their own role that benefits the unit as a whole. Ibanez and Stewart create the vicious and searing guitars that dominate this album, producing riff fests like "If Not Us Then Who", "Soul Sacrifice" and the aforementioned "Executioner's Tax (Swing Of The Axe)". Ulsh's drums serve to blast down any mental resistance the listener may have and is ably assisted by Whetzel, who underscores and provides a hell of a sonic gut punch in tandem with Ulsh. Gale is the roar in the middle of the whirlwind; being the voice of devastation, he bellows like a banshee possessed and completes the sonic onslaught.

If I were pressed to find a weak point on this ironclad armour-plated war machine it would be the vocals. Gale has a great voice and it fits the album like a glove, but it's the only part of the album that shows little to no variance, whereas everything else does at least show some mixing of the formula. It is only a minor critique, but if I were to alter anything that would be the only part.

If you are still somehow on the fence, put this record on and be blasting onto the superfan side; Power Trip take no prisoners on Nightmare Logic so either join them or wonder about in their wake and question where everybody else has gone.