Dallas crossover thrash outfit POWER TRIP have released "Precinct 3" / "Scavenger", a double single that marks their first new recordings since the death of frontman Riley Gale in 2020. The songs are out now via the band's new label home, Blue Grape Music, and "Precinct 3" arrives with a music video directed by Eric Richter. Both tracks preview a new studio album the band plans to release in spring 2027.
The release is the first to feature vocalist Seth Gilmore, who joined in 2023, alongside the core lineup of guitarists Blake Ibanez and Nick Stewart, bassist Chris Whetzel and drummer Chris Ulsh. The pair of songs was recorded at Empire Sound in Carrollton, Texas, with Jacob Hansen (ARCH ENEMY, VOLBEAT, AMON AMARTH, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER) producing and Ibanez co-producing. It's the band's first time working with Hansen.
Ulsh explains that Hansen suited them because he knows how to make big-sounding records but came up in 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."
"Precinct 3" is the faster of the two, built on a tremolo-picked riff at around 205 BPM before dropping into one of the band's trademark half-time beatdowns. Lyrically it takes on unchecked authority. Ibanez says the band started by asking what Riley would have wanted to write about: "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."
"Scavenger" is a mid-tempo track in the vein of fan favorites "Soul Sacrifice" and "Crossbreaker". Gilmore's lyrics target people who attach themselves to someone else's hard work and build a sense of self-importance from the association.
The songs are on digital platforms now and will also come out as a limited 7" single, available for pre-order through the band's and Blue Grape Music's webstores. A Record Store Day Black Friday edition with alternate artwork by James Bousema hits independent record shops on November 27.
POWER TRIP released two full-lengths, Manifest Decimation (2013) and Nightmare Logic (2017), and earned a Grammy nomination before Gale's death. Since then the band has played only occasional shows and festivals.
POWER TRIP live:
- October 21 — Mexico City, Mexico — SLAYER: Reign In Blood 40th Anniversary
- October 24 — Fort Worth, TX — Sick New World Texas
- November 20 — New Orleans, LA — The Great NOLA Trendkill
Follow POWER TRIP: YouTube · Blue Grape Music