Buffalo's Lacerate blend the blunt force of death metal with groove-oriented riffs and hardcore intensity, arriving in 2024 with something mean to say. The result is a collision of genres that hits like a cold Lake Erie winter.

Richmond, Virginia's Lamb of God are one of American metal's most influential acts, forging a genre-defining blend of groove metal and metalcore that helped bring heavy music to a new generation of fans. Their catalog stands as a landmark of 21st-century metal.

Madison, Wisconsin's Last Crack blend progressive complexity with the gut-punch immediacy of groove metal, making music that's simultaneously brainy and bruising. Their Wisconsin roots give their sound a no-nonsense directness that keeps the prog tendencies grounded.

Out of Benton City, Washington, Last Nerve blends groove metal's mid-tempo swagger with thrash's serrated edge — a band formed in 2021 with something to prove and the riffs to back it up.

Heavy metal at its most workmanlike and mean — this Last Rites welds groove's midrange punch to thrash's forward momentum, producing a no-frills assault that gets the job done.

Venomous Depressive Black Metal from Houston.

Oklahoma City's Left to Die launched in 2021 channeling the hard-swinging midrange of groove metal with a hard rock backbone. Built for volume and momentum, they represent OKC's stubborn refusal to be overlooked in the national heavy conversation.

Legionnaire's black metal lands somewhere between cold atmospheric density and outright hostility — a project that has been building its vision since 2015 without geographic or stylistic tethering. The name implies discipline; the music delivers disorientation.

Detroit's Life of Suppression channel their city's industrial legacy through a lethal merger of death metal, groove-driven heaviness, and hardcore punk's burning urgency since 2022.

Out of Walla Walla, Washington, Livevil fuse groove metal's chunky swagger with metalcore aggression, carving out a hard-hitting sound that hits like a freight train.

Bloomington, Illinois's Low Twelve have been laying down punishing groove and heavy metal since 2014, keeping it rooted and physical in the heartland tradition.

Boston's Lynx have been delivering no-frills heavy and groove metal since 1999, outlasting trends by staying loyal to riff weight and rhythm above all else. Over two decades in, they remain a fixture of the New England underground.