Hailing from Boone, North Carolina, Razorbeast have been pursuing groove metal's chug-and-stomp traditions since 2020, built around the syncopated heaviness and down-tuned swagger the genre does best. They bring a mountain-town rawness to a sound that could easily fill a much larger stage.

Chicago's Repentance launched in 2021 blending melodic groove metal with metalcore, sitting comfortably in the tradition of hard-hitting Midwestern bands that prioritize groove and aggression over pure technicality. The city's blue-collar metal legacy — think Disturbed, Soil — echoes through their emphasis on rhythmic punch and vocal hooks. A young band with a clear sense of purpose.

Los Angeles' Repulsant formed in 2022, channeling death metal's brutality through groove metal's physical rhythmic insistence — the result is something that hits hard at both the gut and the neck. In a city with no shortage of extreme metal acts, they've distinguished themselves by prioritizing feel alongside aggression. Young but built with clear intent.

Saddle River, New Jersey's Residue emerged in 2018 with a groove metal foundation built for maximum physical impact — locked-in riffing and deep pocket rhythms designed to make small club stages shake. New Jersey's long tradition of straight-ahead heavy music lives in their no-nonsense approach. Dependable, punishing, and unapologetically heavy.

Raleigh's Resin have been mixing groove and sludge metal since 2013, occupying the fertile overlap between Southern heaviness and rhythmic modern metal. North Carolina's triangle region has always supported a diverse heavy underground, and Resin reflect that in a sound that is simultaneously catchy and corrosive. Slow burn with a serious payoff.

Formed in 2023 out of Lubbock, Texas, RigJaw brings a no-frills approach to groove metal rooted in the heavy-working, blue-collar energy of West Texas. Their sound leans on down-tuned riffs and punishing midtempo rhythms that hit like the oil fields the region is known for. A young band with momentum, they're one of the newer acts putting Lubbock on the map for heavy music.

Salt Lake City's Riksha has been carving out a distinct space in the American heavy music landscape since 2011, fusing groove metal's rhythmic aggression with the compositional depth of progressive metal. The result is a sound that's simultaneously crushing and cerebral — dense, syncopated riff patterns set against dynamic song structures that reward repeated listening. They're among the more technically ambitious heavy acts to emerge from Utah's active underground.

Burlington, Vermont's Rocketsled formed in 2020 around the natural tension between groove metal's locked-in rhythmic heaviness and sludge metal's abrasive, feedback-soaked drag. The result is music that is simultaneously hard to stop nodding to and uncomfortably heavy — a Vermont band that sounds more swamp than snowpack.

Miami guitarist and bandleader Rodrigo Herrera launched this project in 2023 at the intersection of progressive and groove metal, drawing on South Florida's rich Latin musical culture and fusing it with the polyrhythmic complexity of progressive metal and the locked-in heaviness of groove. It's a project defined by instrumental sophistication and a clear sense of rhythmic identity.

Los Angeles-based Rude Awakening traces a path from traditional heavy and power metal into heavier, groove-driven territory, with a sound that has toughened and thickened over time without abandoning its melodic instincts. Formed in 2021, they carry forward the city's long tradition of hard-hitting commercial-adjacent metal.

New Orleans' Rude Awakening pulls from three of the heaviest currents in American metal — thrash, groove, and death — blending their distinct textures into a sound that is aggressive, swinging, and mean in the way the city seems to demand. Formed in 2021, they fit naturally into the NOLA heavy underground.

Hard-hitting Melodic Groove Metal / Metalcore from Dallas.

San Antonio's Rusty Nails thread stoner metal's hazy riff worship with grunge grit, drawing on both genres' working-class rawness to produce a sound that feels lived-in and deliberately unglamorous since 2017.

Nashua, New Hampshire's Ryan Burke operates as a solo project fusing thrash metal's precision and speed with groove metal's locked-in, syncopated heaviness, a combination honed since the project's 2022 start.