Named after a demon of transformation, Long Island's Haagenti began with melodic death metal roots before evolving into a heavier, more unrelenting death metal sound over their decade-plus existence. Their trajectory mirrors the demonic namesake — a gradual, deliberate shift into something darker.

Wilmington, North Carolina's Hadea refuses easy classification — their death metal foundation is filtered through progressive songwriting and experimental tendencies that set them apart from more conventional genre practitioners. Since 2014, they've been one of the more intellectually restless acts in the Southeast.

One of Maine's most idiosyncratic metal acts, Hallowed Butchery have spent over fifteen years refusing to settle — beginning as a black/grind project and gradually morphing into something incorporating doom, folk, and experimental elements. Based in Kennebec County, their music sounds like it grew out of the woods rather than any rehearsal space.

Indianapolis's Hatchling push death metal into stranger territory, filtering the genre through an experimental lens that keeps listeners slightly off-balance. Formed in 2013, they favor structural unpredictability and unconventional texture over genre formulas.

Connecticut's Havohej operate in the shadow of the early American black metal underground, pairing scathing black metal orthodoxy with experimental inclinations that push the genre into stranger, more dissonant territory. Few US acts bring this level of dark conceptual commitment to the form.

Michigan's Hideous CHUD take the foundational elements of brutal death and grindcore and run them through an experimental blender, producing results that are as unpredictable as they are punishing. The Roseville outfit seem genuinely uninterested in doing what's expected of them.

New York's Humanity Falls have been dissecting death metal and grindcore through an experimental lens since 2009, treating tempo, structure, and brutality as variables rather than constants. Technical, disorienting, and genuinely unsettling.