Wilmington, Delaware's Vicious Embrace have spent a decade weaponizing the collision between hardcore's raw aggression and metalcore's technical drive. The band's name doubles as a mission statement — they pull you close and then punish you for it.

New York's Vise Massacre has been hammering out hardcore-thrash crossover since 2012, embodying the no-nonsense collision of punk attitude and metal precision that the genre has always promised. Their sound is built for small rooms and large amounts of sweat — stripped down, fast, and combative in the best tradition of the New York underground.

Morgantown, West Virginia's Vulgar Royalty formed in 2021 with a sound that collapses grindcore, hardcore, and sludge metal into one misanthropic heap. The combination gives their music a relentless forward momentum shot through with the kind of slow, grinding dread that sludge does best.