Yonkers, New York's Hanging Garden charts a different course — progressive death metal with ambition and technical edge, building compositional complexity into the brutality since 2013.

A recent arrival from Fargo, North Dakota, Hanging Wound formed in 2023 and plant their flag firmly in death metal territory, adding another grim chapter to Fargo's quietly active extreme metal scene.

New Orleans' Hangnail have dealt in death metal and grindcore since 1998, pairing the city's swampy, heavy undercurrent with the kind of blasting ferocity that demands short, vicious songs.

South Florida's Hanus emerged from Margate in 2024, bringing a death-thrash attack steeped in the Sunshine State's long tradition of extreme metal — fast, angry, and technically sharp.

Winona, Minnesota's Harbinger blend groove and thrash metal into a mid-sized town sound with outsized bite, active since 2015 in a state with a fierce and underappreciated metal pedigree.

Brentwood, California's Hard Fail push melodic death metal with enough melodic sensibility to hook you and enough pure death metal weight to follow through since forming in 2018.

Philadelphia's Hardgore have been dealing in death-thrash brutality since 2016, the city's aggressive musical DNA running through every riff — unpolished, direct, and unapologetically vicious.

Bel Air, Maryland's Harlequin Ichthyosis arrived in 2023 wielding melodic death metal that sharpens Scandinavian melodicism against American brutality. Their unsettling name hints at a willingness to push into uncomfortable sonic territory.

Milwaukee's Harlots have spent two decades sharpening the intersection of metalcore and technical death metal into something genuinely punishing. Formed in 2004, they bring the rhythmic punch of the former and the surgical precision of the latter in equal measure.

Portland's Harness emerged in 2020 pulling death and thrash metal into violent collision, favoring the stripped-down brutality that comes from letting two of metal's most aggressive subgenres do what they do best without decoration.

Champaign, Illinois's Harpe steep themselves in death-doom's most morbid traditions — the genre's slow-motion dread rendered in thick, downtuned guitars and a pacing that refuses to rush toward the inevitable. A heavy and deliberate presence since 2020.

Beverly, New Jersey's Harrøwing have been dealing in straight-ahead death metal since 2018, favoring density and aggression over technical showmanship. Their name suggests an experience that is distinctly unpleasant — in the best possible sense.

Asheville, North Carolina's Harsh Realm channel the city's fertile underground into death-doom of considerable weight — slow tempos, death metal's brutality, and a mournful undercurrent that makes the music feel genuinely funereal. Active since 2019.

Milwaukee death metal act Haruspex have been a cornerstone of Wisconsin's underground since 2012, delivering the kind of punishing, technically adept death metal that the city's scene has long championed. Their longevity speaks to their quality and consistency.

Newly formed in Cincinnati in 2024, Haruspex Chants mine death-doom's most ritualistic qualities — the genre's glacial pacing and suffocating atmosphere rendered with a deliberateness that befits a band whose name evokes ancient omen-reading. An auspicious debut presence.