Pro-Magnum have been holding down Omaha's heavy metal underground since 2015, delivering a sound rooted in the no-frills, riff-first tradition of American heavy metal. Their name channels the hard-hitting energy of the genre's classic era, and a decade into their run they remain a fixture of Nebraska's tight-knit metal community.

Probot is the brainchild of Dave Grohl — a sprawling heavy metal superproject that united some of the most iconic voices in underground metal history, including Lemmy Kilmister, Max Cavalera, Wino, and members of Discharge and Sepultura. Operating out of Alexandria, Virginia and drawing from doom, stoner, groove, and classic heavy metal, the project stands as a reverent and thunderous love letter to the genres that shaped Grohl long before Nirvana.

Chicago's Professor Emeritus blend heavy doom with epic traditional metal, conjuring a sound that is both crushing and soaring in equal measure. Formed in 2017, they draw on the grand, ceremonial qualities of epic doom — long compositions, weighty riffs, and commanding vocals that owe as much to classic heavy metal as to the funeral march tempos of the genre's bleaker practitioners. They stand out in the Midwest underground for their ambitious song structures and theatrical sensibility.

Kansas City, Missouri's Prophet formed in 2007 and work within a rich tradition of progressive heavy and power metal that prizes songcraft and dynamic range alongside muscle. Sitting at the intersection of melodic power metal and progressive complexity, they build material that rewards careful listening while still delivering the anthemic momentum the genre demands.

A solo darkwave and ambient project launched in Dallas, Texas in 2007 by Proscriptor McGovern, the drummer and vocalist best known from occult black metal act Absu. Proscriptor's output here veers into atmospheric, ceremonial territory that draws on esoteric imagery far removed from the conventional metal canon.

A San Diego project active since 2021, Protas blend the swagger of classic heavy metal with the propulsive attack of thrash, drawing on California's deep tradition of dual-genre crossover. The project is built around guitarist Jon Protas, whose playing bridges the melodic sensibility of traditional metal with sharper, more aggressive arrangements.

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A Los Angeles heavy metal outfit formed in 2017, Prowler draw on the melodic, leather-and-chrome aesthetic of traditional metal — clean vocals, galloping rhythms, and guitar work that nods to the NWOBHM and American power metal bands that ruled the Sunset Strip era. Their music rewards fans who prize craft and songcraft over extreme noise.

Jacksonville, Florida's Pseudocidal have been grinding out heavy, mid-tempo groove metal since 2013, leaning into the thick, down-tuned riffing and rhythmic swagger that defines the American groove scene.