Los Angeles' Whipworm formed in 2016 combining the caustic aggression of death metal with thrash's relentless forward propulsion — a combination the city's sprawling extreme music underground has always had room for. Their name is as unpleasant as their sound is meant to be, and in LA's competitive heavy underground that is a credibility move as much as anything else. Fast, filthy, and exactly as hostile as intended.

Founded in 2009 to break from the Texas brutal death mold with a more sinister, blackened approach. Three albums deep, with 'Ritual of Homicide' dropping in 2023.

Seattle's Whythre has been honing a melodic death metal approach since 2016, blending the precision and melody of the Gothenburg school with the darker, more abrasive edge that runs through the Pacific Northwest's metal scene. Their sound balances aching melodic leads against heavier, grinding death metal foundations — brooding in the way only a Seattle band can pull off with conviction.

Nashville isn't often associated with death-doom, but Wicked Sorcerer — formed there in 2023 — arrive dragging heavy metal, death metal, and doom together into something genuinely sinister. The city's outsider quality suits this kind of music well, and the band's willingness to pull from multiple extreme subgenres gives their sound a lurching, unpredictable weight.

Since 2012, Roseland, New Jersey's Wide Awake Nightmare have occupied the violent overlap of death metal, thrash, and grindcore — a style defined by relentless tempo, grinding textures, and the kind of aggression that refuses to pick just one extreme genre and stay there. Over a decade into their run, they've developed into one of the more seasoned acts in the Garden State's brutal underground.

Fargo, North Dakota's Widow have been playing death metal since 2011, carving out a niche in one of the country's more isolated heavy metal scenes. The remoteness of the Northern Plains seems to inform the band's aesthetic — there's a bleakness to straightforward death metal that suits a place where winter lasts longer than it has any right to.

Tucson's Wield formed in 2021 at the brutal intersection of death metal and hardcore — two genres that, at their most aggressive, aren't that far apart, and Wield makes sure you feel exactly how close together they can get. The desert city provides an appropriate backdrop for music this confrontational and relentless.

Cosmos-obsessed progressive extreme metal. Debut 'The Heavens Are Not on Fire' is a concept album about the Great Meteor Storm of 1833; follow-up 'Echoes' chronicles a deep-space expedition in one 32-minute track.

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