Aurora, Illinois's F.O.G. have been grinding out heavy metal and hard rock since 2009, drawing on classic heavy metal foundations with a no-frills Midwestern directness.

Marshfield, Missouri's Face the Wheel deal in the classic intersection of heavy and thrash metal, putting meat on the bones of a sound that's been core to American metal since 2018.

Lowell, Massachusetts's Faceless Enemy started in 2022 as brutal deathcore before pivoting toward slam and brutal death metal — an evolution toward pure extremity with no interest in accessibility.

Out of Mathews, Louisiana, Factor 8 blend groove metal's driving rhythms with the thick, swampy heaviness of sludge metal — a combination that wears the bayou in every note since 2018.

Fort Lauderdale's Faethom has been one of South Florida's more ambitious metal acts since 2011, fusing black metal's cold intensity with progressive structures and traditional heavy metal muscle into something distinctly their own.

Out of the small town of Hyden in the Kentucky coalfields, Faidas has been playing traditional heavy metal since 2013 — a reminder that classic metal's fire burns in unexpected places, far from the usual metropolitan scenes.

Ann Arbor's Fair Game started as a hard rock and heavy metal act before evolving toward psychedelic doom metal — a trajectory that reflects both the band's growth since 2018 and the fertile experimental energy of that Michigan college town.

Fair Warning is a heavy metal and hard rock act formed in 2014, drawing from the classic blueprint of big riffs and melodic hooks while keeping one foot in the raw energy that made the genre essential in the first place.

San Bernardino, California's Fait has been playing traditional heavy metal since 2014, carrying the torch in the Inland Empire — a gritty stretch of Southern California that has its own claim on metal's working-class roots.

New York's Faith and Fire sit at the harder end of hard rock and heavy metal, a sound built around anthemic conviction and strong riffs; the band formed in 2021 with clear reverence for the music that came before them.

Tulsa, Oklahoma's Falck formed in 2021 at the meeting point of thrash, groove, and traditional heavy metal — a combination that produces the kind of no-nonsense, hard-hitting music that the southern plains seem to generate with ease.

Tucson's Fall from Grace plays heavy metal with a hard rock sensibility, formed in 2018 in a desert city that has produced a surprisingly resilient metal underground despite — or perhaps because of — its remove from the coasts.

Detroit's Fall from Grace occupies familiar heavy metal and hard rock territory with the kind of gritty conviction you'd expect from a city that has always had a direct, unadorned relationship with loud, heavy music since 2018.

Philadelphia's Fall of Achilles formed in 2021 drawing from a wide net — groove, thrash, traditional heavy metal, and metalcore — reflecting Philly's history as a city where hardcore and metal have always bled into each other.

Brooklyn's Fallout have been delivering hard-nosed heavy metal and hard rock since 2018, rooted in the borough's long tradition of working-class rock and roll. Their sound is unshowy and direct — the kind of heavy metal that has more in common with a bar stage than an arena, and is better for it.