ALBUM REVIEW: Power Trip - "Nightmare Logic"

By: Hunter Young

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 24/02/2017

Label: Southern Lord Recordings

All in all, you would be pressed to find a weak link in “Nightmare Logic”'s sound or mix. It's a pinnacle album for those who need their metal fast, violent, and up in their face like a full scale riot.

“Nightmare Logic” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Soul Sacrifice
2. Executioner's Tax (Swing of the Axe)
3. Firing Squad
4. Nightmare Logic
5. Waiting Around To Die
6. Ruination
7. If Not Us Then Who
8. Crucifixation

The Review

If there's one thing Texas does, its crank out some great metal! Whether thrash, doom, death, stoner, or whatever gets you throwing horns up, Texas has pumped it out; today is no different, as one of the stalwarts, Power Trip, has unleashed a magnificent piece of Thrash. A Thrashterpiece. Shut up. It's called “Nightmare Logic” and it's a dream of a drop!

Power Trip manages a classically gnarly sound, akin to Iron Reagan and Municipal Waste (who share members) and the simplistic song formulas of the original wave like Sodom, Slayer, early Kreator. It's about violence (“Executioners Tax”, “Firing Squad”), freedom from religions hand (“Crucifixation”), and not sitting around for life to happen (“Waiting Around To Die”). All in all, you would be pressed to find a weak link in “Nightmare Logic”'s sound or mix. It's a pinnacle album for those who need their metal fast, violent, and up in their face like a full scale riot.

Again, sound wise, this album is just spot on with it. The guitars are crunchy like broken bottles, drums dead simple and clear, and the solos RAGE like the old days, when fingers still worked independently. They utilize Whammy bars like they are renting them by the hour, and it's like 1987 found its old denim jacket again. Power Trip is absolutely where most Neo-Trash bands aspire to be, and honestly are making bands like Slayer look terrible.

Title Track “Nightmare Logic” and “Firing Squad” are definitely my highlights off this banger release, but the whole album is a listen-through record for me. Thrash along at home with this Southern Lord gold, and let it flow over you like a familiar, well worn, patch covered denim blankie.

“Nightmare Logic” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Various Artists - ‘Morbid Tales: A Tribute to Celtic Frost’ (Album Review)

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 15/11/2015

Label: Corpse Flower Records

Child Bite, along with Phil Anselmo brings the biggest name to the tribute, and Phil sounds like he had a blast trying Tom G. Warrior’s unique vocal inflections on for size. He’s like a middle-aged kid blasting “The Usurper” in front of a mirror, doing his best impression of Warrior while his parents are out of the house, which kicks this album off with a really fun tone

‘Morbid Tales: A Tribute to Celtic Frost’ LP//Digital track listing:

Side A:

1. Child Bite w/ Philip H. Anselmo - “The Usurper”

2. Persekutor - “Procreation Of The Wicked”

3. Acid Witch - “Cherry Orchards”

4. Temple Of Void - “Os Abysmi Vel Daath”

Side B:

5. Municipal Waste – “Nocturnal Fear”

6. Hayward (featuring Scott Kelly and Jason Roeder of Neurosis) - “Jewel Throne”

7. Coffin's Slave (featuring Scott Carlson of Repulsion) - “Dance Sleazy

8. Evoken – “Dawn Of Megiddo”

MP3 Download Bonus: Black Anvil – “Dethroned Emperor”

Flexi Bonus: Coffins Slave - Hellhammer’s “Reaper”

The Review:

There was a time, particularly in the first half of the 2000s where tribute albums were a dime a dozen. In fact, there were bands with only a single album out with tribute albums arriving only a year after that album had come out, as was the case with Evanescence. In a more relevant metal context, Dwell Records released an enormous number of metal tribute albums in the late 90s and early 2000s, to wildly varying results. But those tributes also enabled them to get some great albums from the likes of The Chasm and Evoken into major US record stores, at a time when that made a huge difference.

In 2015, tribute albums seem less prevalent anecdotally, or at least more easily ignored. It’s for that reason, along with the sheer effort and reverence ‘Morbid Tales: A Tribute to Celtic Frost’ has behind it, that this tribute is more special than just about any other out there past or present. You can order the album with a 150 page illustrated comic released earlier in the year, as the album is meant to be the comic’s soundtrack. There’s no questioning Celtic Frost’s influence and impact on the heavy metal genre, but this album really drives that point home.

Child Bite, along with Phil Anselmo brings the biggest name to the tribute, and Phil sounds like he had a blast trying Tom G. Warrior’s unique vocal inflections on for size. He’s like a middle-aged kid blasting “The Usurper” in front of a mirror, doing his best impression of Warrior while his parents are out of the house, which kicks this album off with a really fun tone. Sadly, Persekutor drop the ball a bit with a thin-sounding, antiseptic cover of “Procreation of the Wicked”, which takes some of the steam out of the album early on.

Luckily, there’s more than enough here to make up for a couple of stumbling blocks along the way. Acid Witch’s cover of “Cherry Orchards” makes a case for being better than the original for sheer personality, besides being really well-conceived and executed. Temple of Void’s take on “Os Abysmi Vel Daath” from 2006’s ‘Monotheist’ and Evoken’s “Dawn of Megiddo” are powerful versions in their own right, and each band remembers that the best part of covering a song is making it your own.

With the level of care that went into producing most of these covers, combined with the awesome idea behind the illustrated book that accompanies the album, what you have here is all you could really want in a tribute. There’s a level of passion for the band of honor here that so often feels absent from other tribute albums. For that reason, along with the quality of music on offer, ‘Morbid Tales: A Tribute to Celtic Frost’ is a step above and beyond just about any tribute album I’ve heard to date.

You can pick up an LP/illustrated book copy here.