Earth Crisis are a metallic hardcore band from Syracuse, New York, formed in 1989 around vocalist Karl Buechner and guitarist Scott Crouse. Combining hardcore's aggression with death metal heaviness and an unwavering commitment to straight edge and vegan ideology, they helped define the metalcore genre and the vegan straight edge movement with albums such as Destroy the Machines (1995) and Gomorrah's Season Ends (1996). Sociologist Ross Haenfler credited them as 'the face of straight edge throughout the 1990s'; after a hiatus from 2001 to 2007, they have remained active.

Orlando thrash metal project from the Florida underground.

Enemy Soil were a grindcore band from Sterling, Virginia, formed in 1991 by Richard Johnson, later known for Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Drugs of Faith. The band fused the sonic violence of grindcore with the political and social urgency of the Washington D.C. hardcore tradition, and their compilation Casualties of Progress was ranked fifth on Terrorizer Magazine's list of 20 essential U.S. grindcore releases in 2009. Notable members at various points included J.R. Hayes (Pig Destroyer) on vocals; the band was active until 1999, with reunion shows in 2001 and 2018.