Power Trip have unleashed the second single of their upcoming full-length Nightmare Logic, titled “Executioner’s Tax (Swing Of The Axe)”. Lyricist/vocalist Riley Gale explains that the song was written about:
“Christian European countries where it was common for the person sentenced to death to have a chance to repent. If they did, they were given a bag of coins, silver or alike. For if they were particularly vile or the executioner felt lazy, it may take more than one swing of that axe to get that person’s head off and that kind of death is certainly one you’d want to be as painless as possible. Hence, the Executioner’s Tax to ensure a strong, lights-out kind of death. It’s more subtly an allegory about that being the motive for a lot of people these days and how the people that feed and heal us (The Executioner and The Priest). They love to get us addicted, fat, sick – so they can feed us, medicate us and nearly quite literally kill many of us. We pay for pleasure of making it taste good or being numb to it all. We are all slowly paying our way out and our lives are built around the Executioner’s Tax – hopefully going out quick and easy. We subconsciously crave for our end, a spoiled one.”
Nightmare Logic arrives via Southern Lord on February 24th. Pre-orders are available on physical formats through the label here (U.S.) and here (EU); and digitally on Bandcamp and iTunes.