Artist: Power Trip
Song: Nightmare Logic
Album: Nightmare Logic
Producer: Arthur Rizk
Label: Southern Lord
Year: 2017
Notes:
The fools in charge seek to demonize the oppressed. What they don’t realize is their methods can and will be turned against them. Preach law and order while breaking the laws. Their soft, feeble-minded underbelly is vulnerable.
Riley Gale, who wrote the lyrics below, died earlier this week at the age of 34. He was a positive force on this earth, always rooting for the little guy, openly calling out and evicting homophobes, misogynists, and racists from both his and the band’s orbit. (I personally loved the Twitter feud he had going with a herd of Proud Boy dipshits a few years back!)
This is the second (of six) Power Trip songs I’d already selected for Protest 100. They’ll all still run, and they’ll all still mean exactly what they mean. I love this band. And Riley’s presence here, doing what he did and how he did it, helped me feel both normal and empowered. I will miss him greatly.
Excerpt from ‘Unreality’ —
This meant work could begin on the problem at hand and left open the possibility that some sort of headway could be established before nightfall.
Lyrics
The slumber of reason gives birth to all demons
A new battle takes form
Forced evolution to incite revolution
Rewrite the rules to play the game
As we struggle in the fight to survive
Through strange domains and vicious ways
From the darkest depths we will arise
This realm will be their demise
Their demise
They underestimated the force behind the hatred
Grown with war on our minds
Lawlessness of their nightmare has left them unaware
To the weakness they’ve exposed
We reach the summit in our climb to the top
Through strange domains and vicious ways
In the darkest depths, a planned devised
Their spite for us is their demise
Their demise
They’ve given us a devil’s playground and all his deadliest toys
We must take all we’ve learned to destroy all they know
This nightmare logic, our greatest tool
Decimate the all-righteous fool
—
‘Protest 100’s mission is two-fold: dispelling the myth that heavy metal is a brainless, socially unaware music genre, and raising awareness of the issues facing our country in the Nov. 3, 2020 election. The path won’t be exclusively metal—some punk and rap and other stuff will be in here too, including the classics—and is not a ranking. All songs are songs I’ve heard while putting this list together, ordered in a manner designed to entertain and educate.
Chris Smith, Author 