Salem, Ohio's Psyclosarin formed in 2019 playing a grinding hybrid of groove and death metal — the combination of rhythmic heaviness and technical death metal aggression gives them a distinct character within Ohio's active and underrated heavy underground.

Arlington, Texas veterans Puncture have been operating since 1994, working a niche of industrial groove metal that grafts mechanized texture and electronic abrasion onto the mid-period Pantera-era heaviness that saturated the DFW scene of that era. Longevity alone makes them a notable piece of local history.

Cleveland's Puppet have been playing groove metal since 2014, leaning into the genre's emphasis on rhythmic lockstep and mid-tempo menace rather than speed, constructing riffs built to land like a hammer rather than a scalpel. A sturdy, head-down entry from Ohio's heavy music scene.

A groove metal outfit from Oak Hill, West Virginia, Pynacle brings a hard rock sensibility to heavy riffing, threading accessible hooks through down-tuned, rhythmically driven metal that sits at the muscular intersection of groove and classic hard rock.

Long Island's Pyrexia are veterans of the brutal death metal underground dating back to 1993, known for their suffocating low-end density and punishing groove that helped define the New York brutal death sound, with their catalog spanning early extremity to mid-period death-groove experiments.