Haunted Shores began as a full band project led by guitarist Mark Holcomb before evolving into a studio collaboration between Holcomb and Periphery co-founder Misha Mansoor following both joining that band. The Washington, DC-rooted djent project released a self-titled debut in 2011, the Viscera EP in 2015, and the second full-length Void in 2022, with guest vocalists including Spencer Sotelo and Dan Tompkins filling vocal duties across the recordings. The project operates as a vehicle for progressive metal experimentation outside the demands of Periphery's touring schedule.

Monument, Colorado's Havok bring progressive and technical ambitions to the thrash template, working in complex song structures and shifting time signatures beneath the aggression. It's the kind of cerebral thrash that rewards close listening while still delivering the requisite headbang quotient.

Jacksonville's Haxprocess represent the progressive wing of extreme metal, threading death metal brutality and thrash aggression through complex, technically demanding arrangements that betray a taste for conceptual ambition. For a band formed in 2022, they've arrived with a surprisingly developed sound.

Monroe, Connecticut's He Was a God explore progressive metal's capacity for dramatic, emotionally charged songwriting, building lengthy, dynamic compositions from contrasts between quiet tension and surging heaviness. Formed in 2021, they're still early in their story but already ambitious in scope.

Los Angeles progressive metal act Heart Impaled have been at it since 2009, weaving together complex arrangements and technical ambition into a sound that rewards close listening. Their work reflects the discipline and reach of LA's sprawling prog-metal underground.

Named after the X-ray binary system, Los Angeles's Heart of Cygnus have been making progressive metal with a rock-influenced sensibility since 2007, reaching for cosmic scope within tightly constructed song structures. The band balances instrumental sophistication with genuine melodic accessibility.

Canyon Lake, California's Heathen Assault launched in 2020 channeling classic heavy metal's melodic power through a progressive lens that adds structural complexity without sacrificing the raw appeal. They're part of a renewed wave of Southern California bands reconnecting with traditional metal's roots.

Brooklyn's Heavy Reign blend neoclassical metal's formal rigor with progressive metal's exploratory tendencies, a pairing that yields music of unusual compositional ambition from this 2022 New York City act. They bring a concert hall sensibility to music built on distorted guitars and dynamics.

Milwaukee's Hedda have been weaving progressive and power metal together since 2006, combining the latter's melodic lift with the structural ambition of the former into an approach that prioritizes both feeling and technical execution. They're one of the Midwest's more durable prog-power acts.