Scatter Tech Hell Cyberthrash Review
Scatter
Tech Hell Cyberthrash
Self-released (digital)/Immortal Jaw Recordings (Ltd cassette)
2026
The pandemic sucked. However, one thing it brought the metal universe is several remote collaborations from everyone, from unknowns to bigger names and everyone in between. I am now dissecting one of these offerings from Texas/Alaskan tech thrash via death metal in Scatter's five-song flesh peeler, Tech Hell Cyberthrash.
According to their press, this project was "born out of pandemic hacker movie marathons and late nights soldering together guitar pedal clones." Scatter is headed up by Spenser Hodge, who later enlisted Lone Star guitar wizard Ruben Cantu and longtime Alaskan collaborator Justin Rodda. This here quintet of tunes was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios in Oakland, California (Autopsy, Vastum, Necrot) and completed with artwork by Matt Stikker (Metallica, Power Trip, Billy Strings). So now that we have the cast of characters, let's check this sucker out!
The mix is clean, crisp, and nothing is fighting for space. The riffs take center stage, and the drums and bass provide a formidable backdrop against the screamed, grunted, and low-growled vocals. Scatter have a knack for diversity in their songwriting, shifting from blazing speeds ("Punching Deck") to d-beat death chug with harmonized guitar lines and melodic speed metal ("Y2K Killer") to power metal-on-steroids gallops ("404"), and it all just works. The last song mentioned has a dual lead break that just hits all the nostalgic buttons perfectly. So good! Many times, a band blending so many styles musically and vocally comes off a bit disjointed and unfocused, but that is not the case with Scatter. Every tempo change or structure sounds deadly intentional. The technical aspect of their sound is most evident in the ever-changing direction and dynamic peaks of "Cyberwar Criminal." This one is a winner, and that's not taking anything away from the first 3 tunes; they're all engaging and headbangable too. They close out with the melancholic minor-key intro of "Binary Hearts" that then morphs into latter-day Exodus-inspired plod before going back into double-kick-led speed metal and turning on a dime into mid-tempo death metal! Seriously, the ease with which they weave in and out of stylistic changes so tightly is damn impressive. The whole EP is over in less than 20 minutes and is basically an extreme metal love letter to '90s cyberpunk and hacker culture; it doesn't get much more genre-appropriate than that. By that I mean to say that thrash is the main modus operandi here, so the lyrical themes fit like a glove.
However, don't go into Tech Hell Cyberthrash thinking that they are just painting by those numbers. What you have here is a varied, intensely colored palette that is meant to draw as much blood as it is to make you question "the net" and technology. Call it the perfect soundtrack to creating some global mischief, if you will.
Now, record a full-length, dudes. Five songs just scratch the surface of what they are capable of. Scatter has officially made my year-end best of list here, and there's five months to go.... Outstanding from start to finish.
RIYL: Forbidden, Horrendous, Coroner, Exodus, Voivod, Death, Sacrifice, Razor
~TB