Tampa's Diabolic are veterans of the Florida death metal scene, having carried their brutal, relentless approach to the genre from a 2001 formation into the present day. Rooted in the same soil that gave death metal its defining sound, they remain one of the Tampa scene's stubbornly active long-runners.

Portland, Oregon's Diabolic Oath have been conjuring black/death metal in the Pacific Northwest underground since 2018. Their sound traffics in the most merciless intersection of both genres — cavernous production, blasting tempos, and a total disregard for comfort or accessibility.

Phoenix's Dichotomize have been sharpening their death metal sound since 2022, developing in the heat-blasted Arizona underground where the genre has quietly maintained a dedicated following. Their approach favors raw aggression and density, cutting against the grain of the state's more polished metal acts.

Greensburg, Indiana's Dis have been wielding black/death metal in the rural Midwest since 2018, an unlikely setting that only sharpens the isolation and fury in their sound. There is something fitting about extreme metal emerging from small-town Indiana — it sounds like it has nowhere else to go.

Dallas's Discern arrived in 2023 with a death/thrash attack that slots naturally into the Texas tradition of technically sharp, aggressive metal. Young but purposeful, they represent a new generation picking up the thread of a scene that has always rewarded heaviness and precision.

Grafton, Ohio's Disembodied have been delivering brutal death metal since 2019, carving out their sound in the working-class industrial corridor between Cleveland and Columbus. Their approach is unsparing — blasting, guttural, and built for the kind of listener who measures heaviness in tonnage.

Ripping Death Metal from Dallas.

Savage Brutal Death Metal from San Marcos.

Columbus, Ohio's Disfigurement have been crafting punishment in the brutal death metal and slam tradition since 2012, wielding the dense, pulverizing riff architecture that defines the Midwest's underground death scene. Their approach leans heavily on the slamming breakdowns and guttural extremity of the slam subgenre, built to level the pit and leave nothing standing.