Power Trip have released their first new music since the 2020 death of singer Riley Gale. The thrash-metal band put out a double single, "Precinct 3" and "Scavenger," through their new label, Blue Grape, according to Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. Pitchfork reported that "Precinct 3" comes with a video directed by Eric Richter.
Both outlets say the songs lead into a third Power Trip album due next spring. Rolling Stone places that record in 2027. It will be the group's first full-length since 2017's Nightmare Logic, and the first with Seth Gilmore at the microphone.
A New Voice, An Old Lineup
Gilmore is a longtime friend of the band who also sings in Skourge and Fugitive, Pitchfork noted. Rolling Stone said the four founding members, guitarists Blake Ibanez and Nick Stewart, bassist Chris Whetzel and drummer Chris Ulsh, confirmed their reunion plans in 2024 and brought Gilmore in for a run of live shows that year. Pitchfork dates the reunion to late 2023, so the two outlets differ on when it began.
According to Rolling Stone, those shows led the band back into the studio and the album writing began there. The record was made with producer Jacob Hansen at Empire Sound. Ulsh told the magazine that Hansen knows how to make big-sounding records and also comes out of the late-1980s extreme metal underground. He added that the band is hard to please: they want a current sound, but above all one that sounds like Power Trip.
Writing With Gale in Mind
Ibanez, who co-produced the new material, described the lyrical approach in a press release. "When we were writing this, we wondered what Riley would have wanted to write about," he said, as quoted by Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. He added that once the band settled on that approach, the words came easily and felt like the right way to open a new chapter and honor Gale. He said he thinks Gale would have been happy to see the music finished.
The lyrics are tied to that question, which makes these first two songs a deliberate nod to the singer the band lost.
What Comes Next
Blue Grape Music will also issue a seven-inch of the "Precinct 3" single in several formats, Rolling Stone reported. Before the album arrives, Power Trip have three more shows booked for 2026. Those include a support slot at Slayer's Reign of Blood 40th Anniversary show on October 21 and a spot at Sick New World Texas on October 24.
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