10 Essential Thrash Metal Bands You Need To Listen To
3. Power Trip
Thrash metal found some surprising new life in the 2010s.
After five years of ironing out their sound, Power Trip exploded onto the scene with 2013 debut LP 'Manifest Decimation'. Blending the attitude of hardcore punk with an old school thrash focus, the album's just shy of 35 minutes of pure, unadulterated headbanging mayhem.
Thrash metal as a whole received new, mainstream attention for the first time in years with the release of 2017's 'Nightmare Logic'. Fine-tuning the crossover thrash style they displayed four years prior, the group revealed a heavier yet more nuanced and intellectual side to themselves here.
Lyricist and front man Riley Gale imbues the proceedings with surprisingly heartfelt, furious meditations on confronting social and political topics. The sky appeared to be the limit for the budding Dallas headbangers as they got back in the studio for a third album in 2019.
Sadly Gale passed away from a fentanyl overdose in August 2020. As it stands, no one's been quite sure where Power Trip might go in the years since this tragic loss. While the surviving band members have confirmed an interest in continuing to work together, the loss of a front man is a tall task to recover from.
At just two albums, Power Trip managed to eclipse many of their forefathers with a punky, mosh-friendly take on the classic Bay Area genre.