Phoenix's Wardog have been channeling the twin spirits of heavy and power metal since 2017, favoring the kind of soaring, anthem-ready songwriting that treats every riff as a rallying cry. Their sound is unapologetic in its love for traditional metal — twin guitar leads, driving rhythms, and vocals that push skyward. In the scorching heat of the Phoenix scene, Wardog brings the energy of the open road.

Blazing Speed / Power Metal from San Antonio.

Raleigh's Widow have been a fixture of the North Carolina power metal scene since 2011, delivering the soaring vocals, twin harmonies, and anthemic songwriting that define the genre at its most exhilarating. They've built a following in the Southeast's underrepresented power metal community by staying true to a style that demands real conviction to pull off.

Uncompromising traditional metal anchored by thrash, speed, and doom influences. Guest appearances from members of Manowar and Virgin Steele on their releases.

Los Angeles-based Worldview has been operating since 2002, developing a sound that weaves together the melodic ambition of power metal with the structural complexity of progressive metal. Two decades in, the band continues to pursue the cinematic, technically demanding territory that defines the best of the West Coast's prog-power contingent.

New Bedford, Massachusetts's Wound Man fuse sludge metal's crushing weight with powerviolence's white-knuckle aggression, channeling the post-industrial decay of coastal New England into short, suffocating bursts of noise since 2013. The band's cross-genre approach makes each release feel like a trap door opening beneath you.

Pompano Beach, Florida's Written in Blood have been fusing power metal's melodic ambitions with the speed and aggression of thrash since 2018, landing on a sound that's as likely to soar as it is to tear through a riff. South Florida's metal scene has produced stranger combinations, but few that work as cleanly.