Power Trip Release 'Precinct 3' and 'Scavenger,' First Songs Since 2020

Power Trip released "Precinct 3" and "Scavenger" on Friday, the Dallas thrash band's first new recordings since singer Riley Gale died in August 2020. The two tracks preview a third studio album due in spring 2027 on Blue Grape Music, the group's new label, and end a studio silence that began after the release of Nightmare Logic in 2017.

How did the band arrive at a new singer?

The four founding members — guitarists Blake Ibanez and Nick Stewart, bassist Chris Whetzel, and drummer Chris Ulsh — confirmed reunion plans in 2024 after years of public uncertainty about the group's future following Gale's death. They enlisted singer Seth Gilmore for a run of live dates that year. Those performances, the band said, persuaded the four that Power Trip could continue as a working unit and led the group back to the studio. Work on the third album began.

The new tracks mark Gilmore's first appearance on a recorded Power Trip release and the band's first studio output in eight years.

What drove the writing process?

The songs address Gale's absence head-on. "When we were writing this, we wondered what Riley would have wanted to write about," Ibanez said in a statement. "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."

Where did the album take shape?

The band tracked the LP at Empire Sound studio in Texas with producer Jacob Hansen. "Recording worked out really well for us because [Hansen] has the knowledge of making these big records, but also comes from the late 80's extreme metal underground," Ulsh said. "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."

The band framed the project as both a continuation of the Nightmare Logic sound and an opening for new material shaped by a four-piece that had spent years apart.

What else is on the way?

Blue Grape Music will release "Precinct 3" as a seven-inch single in multiple formats. Power Trip will play three more concerts in 2026, including:

• October 21: support slot at Slayer's Reign of Blood 40th Anniversary in Mexico City
• October 24: Sick New World Texas, the band's hometown festival

The 2027 LP will be the group's first full-length statement with Gilmore on vocals and the first to push the project past the period that closed with Gale's death. Whether the new material can sustain the taut, politically charged thrash that defined Power Trip's first two albums will become clearer when the record lands next spring — and when the band tests the songs live in front of audiences before then.