Torchlight Parade is a heavy metal band from St. Louis, Missouri, formed in 2012, delivering straightforward traditional metal with a midwestern directness. Their approach favors classic song structures and muscular riffing rooted firmly in the genre's foundational sound.

Statesboro, Georgia's Tormentor is a black metal band formed in 2023, operating out of a small college town well removed from any major metal hub. Their isolation gives the project a self-contained intensity typical of black metal acts built outside metropolitan scenes.

Torn Away from Flint, Michigan formed in 2018, playing heavy and groove metal with the thick, working-class energy that defines their city's cultural character. Their sound favors mid-paced, crushing heaviness over technicality — direct, physical, and unpretentious.

Eden Prairie, Minnesota's Torok plays traditional heavy metal with a hard rock edge, carrying on the classic American metal tradition since their formation in 2016.

Out of Garden City, Michigan, this Torque operates in the heavy metal and hard rock tradition — a Midwestern band built on riff-forward songwriting since 2005.

Ottawa, Illinois' Torque merges groove metal's rhythmic heaviness with traditional heavy metal's melodic sensibility, a working-class Midwest metal act formed in 2005.

Named after the Grand Inquisitor, Norfolk, Virginia's Torquemada delivers unrelenting death metal since 2011, drawing on the genre's most punishment-focused traditions.

Bloomington, Indiana's Torturess weave together doom, sludge, and traditional heavy metal into a dense, riff-forward sound that recalls the crushing weight of Electric Wizard alongside the groove-driven swagger of '70s-influenced hard rock.

Atlanta, Georgia's Tortus play heavy metal with a classic bent, representing the American South's enduring appetite for riff-driven, no-frills metal that prioritizes power and directness over genre experimentation.