Style: Thrash metal, progressive metal, death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Suicidal Angels, Nevermore, Heathen, Forbidden
Country: North Macedonia
Release date: 27 March 2026

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Dobro utro! The Progressive Subway extends its tracks today to North Macedonia for the first time, presenting a band that’s now hot off the release of their third album: Scattered with Scattered from Skopje. Say that five times fast. At their core a thrash/death metal hybridization, the band takes a more nuanced approach, including certain progressive metal elements to colour their sound. There’s an abundance of melody on the album, often sandwiched between heavier, more aggressive passages and more than a few clean vocal features. Acoustic guitars are also present—an unusual inclusion in a thrash metal album—but the subdued character of the acoustic guitar helps create a somber atmosphere that contrasts with the bellicose nature of the typical thrash metal sound. These elements are a bit of a scattered mix, but can the group work them all together to form a cohesive output?

As a matter of fact, I’d say the name does a disservice to the focus with which the quintet is locked into their performances. Scattered is a very dense and tightly written album, with razor’s edge riffing and relentless rhythmic attacks contributing equally, like the complex characteristics of a fine rakija blend together to create the perfect sip. Vocalist Peche Klechkaroski prefers a mixed vocal style with some gravelly death metal-oriented harsh vocals and a more silken baritone (“Utopia”). The guitar work from the six string duo Milancho Pavleski and Goran Siljanoski expresses your classic thrash-style riffing (“Civilizacija”) but also excels in melodic playing (the intro riff to “Justicia” being among the most memorable). Drummer Jordan Malenko adeptly leads the time and feel modulations that are peppered throughout, bassist Stefan Gjuroski keeps it fresh with his twangy fretless bass underneath it all, and the two interplay notably on tracks like “The Concept” and the instrumental, “Metamorphis”. I would also like to point out that there aren’t many fretless players in thrash, so I respect the hell out of the decision—and the instrument lends itself well into a subtle progressive death metal influence in the band’s sound. 

For an album firmly rooted in a raucous thrash metal sonority, there’s plenty of well-directed variation on Scattered, notable in the shifting arrangements that the band uses to introduce a measure of complexity. While some of the tracks play creatively with different time changes (“The Machine”, “Justicia”), others delve into varying moods (“Sands of Time”, “Puppeteers of Agony”), and the band expertly maintains a strong heading despite these frequent detours. You’ll never get the sense that an interlude runs too long, or that a bridge is out of place—with Scattered exceeding the seven-minute mark only twice on the album, and their prog metal experimentation never jumping to a wildly discordant key, or an incongruous rag-time section. 

However, I notice that some of the death metal stylings are their weakest point, and that Scattered far excel in their progressive thrash leanings, à la Nevermore. It’s not that their death metal leanings are poorly executed; it is simply that of the two styles they’ve polymerized, the progressive, thrash metal side is the clear winner. And one little nitpick for those who can’t help but tune into the words being sung: the lyrical concepts can seem a little trite, even for a thrash metal release, and don’t always hit their mark. I always feel it comes across a little juvenile to hear a vocalist screaming “fucking” this and “fucking” that, regardless of genre. I don’t have a lyric sheet on hand, but I can tell you it happens on more than one track and is more than a little banal. But if you, like I suspect most people, don’t care about the literary depth of extreme metal lyrical prose, then I’m sure this’ll easily fly under your radar. And I do want to emphasize this is a very minute critique of one small part of a more than decent record. 

With Scattered being a very solid third offering from the North Macedonian thrashers, it seems like thrash metal is becoming the Eastern European sound of the decade so far. With Quasarborn across the northern border and VENUS to the south, that whole area is poised to become the new thrash capital of the world. Move over, Germany; there’s a new game in town. I look forward to what comes next. 

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Recommended tracks: Civilizacija, Utopia, Sands of Time
You may also like: Quasarborn, VENUS, Eruption
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook

Label: Independent

Scattered is:
– Peche Klechkaroski (vocals)
– Milancho Pavleski (lead guitars)
– Goran Siljanoski (guitars)
– Stefan Gjuroski (bass)
– Jordan Malenko (drums)