See POWER TRIP play first show since RILEY GALE's death

Power Trip surprised fans over the weekend by playing their first show since the tragic death of frontman Riley Gale in 2020. 

The Texas thrash lords were the unnamed "special guest" at a December 1st show in Austin that was headlined by Fugitive, the new band of Power Trip guitarist Blake Ibanez. 

Lo and behold, the highlight of the evening was when Power Trip's surviving members — Ibanez, guitarist Nick Stewart, bassist Chris Whetzel and drummer Chris Ulsh — took the stage with Fugitive frontman Seth Gilmore on the mic (who also fronts the Texas band Skourge) and ripped through five classic Power Trip songs. 

The setlist consisted of "Soul Sacrifice," "Executioner's Tax (Swing of the Axe)," "Hornet's Nest," "Manifest Decimation" and "Crucifixation." It looked like fans were going absolutely apeshit, and you can see footage of the performance above and below via YouTube.

This quasi-reunion set isn't the first rumbling Power Trip has made since the band essentially went on hiatus following Gale's death in August 2020. Last year, Ibanez mentioned in a couple cryptic interviews that Power Trip were planning to continue the band, and that they even had an album's worth of songs in the tank that they'd been working on behind the scenes. 

"There's… I guess you can call it a record," Ibanez told Knotfest in September 2022.  "There's a bunch of stuff out there. That's really all I can say. I don't know. I can't really say too much."

"We've been working really hard on it," he continued. "Me and [Ulsh], we have great chemistry and the same thing we've always done when we make records together. The same vibe is there. I'm really proud of the stuff we've written together. So I'm looking forward to that. I don't know when everything's gonna happen, but I'm looking forward to it."