Rocktober '10s Song #9: "Executioner's Tax (Swing of the Axe)" by Power Trip (2017)

We haven't had much metal yet in this year's Rocktober.  You want some metal?  Let's hear some metal.  Thrash metal band Power Trip formed in Dallas in 2008, releasing their first album, Manifest Decimation, in 2013.  They followed that up with 2017's Nightmare Logic, which landed on various "best of" lists of metal albums that year, as well as #43 on Loudwire's 2017 list of the 50 Best Thrash Metal Albums of All-Time.

"Executioner's Tax (Swing of the Axe)," off of Nightmare Logic, is a pounding thrash metal/hardcore song about, well, the executioner.  And the executioner always gets his -- and I say "his" because I am not aware of any female executioners -- due when he swings that axe, even if you thought you were above his reach.

Sadly, lead singer Riley Gale died in August 2020 at the age of 34, and an autopsy revealed he died from a fentanyl overdose.  Yet another reminder to do lab tests on all your hard drugs before ingesting them.

A live version of this song was nominated for a Grammy in 2021 for Best Metal Performance, losing out to Body Count's "Bum-Rush."