Phoenix-based melodic death metal act founded in 2020, blending the hook-driven melodies of the Gothenburg school with the blunt force of American death metal. The Arizona desert heat seems to fuel a sound that oscillates between atmospheric guitar harmonies and full-throttle brutality.

Richmond, Virginia black/death metal project formed in 2022, fusing the cold dissonance of black metal with the visceral heaviness of death metal in a city that has long bred uncompromising extreme music. Their Bandcamp handle — wrathbearerde — hints at a Germanic black metal influence woven into their approach.

Devastating Death Metal out of Texas.

Providence, Rhode Island death metal and grindcore outfit active since 2016, delivering short, savage bursts of extreme noise from a New England city with a fertile underground scene. Their sound leans into grindcore's economy of destruction — fast, ugly, and mercilessly brief.

Merrillville, Indiana death metal act formed in 2018, bringing a straight-ahead, no-frills approach to the genre from the industrial northwest corner of the state. Their Bandcamp handle — wretchedfate — suggests a lyrical preoccupation with doom and inevitability that fits squarely within the death metal tradition.

Charlotte, North Carolina melodic technical deathcore and death metal band formed in 2018, known for intricate guitar work and the kind of precision-engineered brutality that defines the technical end of the deathcore spectrum. One of the Southeast's more accomplished acts in the technically demanding hybrid of deathcore and death metal.

San Diego death metal and grindcore band formed in 2023, operating out of Southern California's second-largest city with a sound that fuses grindcore's hyper-compressed violence with the riff architecture of old-school death metal. A young act already tapping into the city's historically fertile underground extreme scene.

A heavy metal band from Woodland Park, New Jersey, active since 2016, drawing on classic metal traditions with a straightforward, no-frills approach that keeps the genre's foundational energy intact. Their work sits comfortably in the lineage of American heavy metal without chasing contemporary trends.

Bel Air, Maryland's Wretched Spawn have been grinding out death metal since 2016, channeling the genre's blunt-force physicality with an approach that favors meat-and-bones brutality over technical flourish. They represent the working-class side of East Coast death metal, built on riffs and relentlessness.

An Oakland, California death metal band formed in 2022, whose name sets the tone perfectly — this is fetid, deliberately unclean death metal in the tradition of the Bay Area's more grotesque underground. The filth is the point, and they lean into it with enthusiasm.

Omaha, Nebraska's Wretchgod emerged in 2022 fusing black and death metal into a hybrid that carries the bleak hostility of both genres without settling cleanly into either. Their presence in Nebraska's comparatively sparse extreme metal scene makes them a notable outlier, channeling the isolation of the Great Plains into punishing noise.

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Milwaukee's Writhen have been operating in the groove and death metal crossover since 2014, pairing the rhythmic churn of groove metal with the aggression of death metal in a way that keeps the music visceral without losing momentum. They're a staple of the Wisconsin metal underground.

A death metal band from Birmingham, Alabama, formed in 2020, Writhing Shadows traffic in the genre's more atmospheric strains — dense, mid-paced, and built on riffs that linger rather than bludgeon. Their Southern roots add a certain heaviness to the music that feels earned rather than affected.

Pompano Beach, Florida's Written in Blood have been fusing power metal's melodic ambitions with the speed and aggression of thrash since 2018, landing on a sound that's as likely to soar as it is to tear through a riff. South Florida's metal scene has produced stranger combinations, but few that work as cleanly.