Ogden, Utah's Deathead have been running speed and thrash metal through the Mountain West's DIY circuit since 2004 — a two-decade-plus run that's given them a well-earned tightness and a genuinely menacing live reputation.

Tearing out of Inver Grove Heights since 2012, Minnesota's Deathrider runs on the twin engines of speed and thrash metal, with a sound that leans into the tightly wound riff attack of bands like early Exodus and Whiplash. Cold winters, hot tempos.

Baldwin Park speed metal act Decimation presses the accelerator and doesn't let up — tight, fast, and rooted in the classic LA-area metal tradition that made Southern California's suburbs a breeding ground for velocity. Formed in 2007 in the San Gabriel Valley.

Warren, Ohio speed/thrash act Decimator storms out of the Mahoning Valley with the stripped-down urgency of classic American speed metal — all burning solos, locked-in rhythm attack, and barely contained aggression. Formed in 2024, they arrive already knowing exactly what kind of band they want to be.

Los Angeles's Deliverance carry a storied legacy reactivated in 2020, blending speed metal and thrash with industrial elements in the tradition of the band's long history. Operating out of the LA metal scene, the band weaves mechanical menace through the kinetic force of high-octane thrash, a combination that has made them fixtures of the underground for decades across multiple incarnations.

Allentown, Pennsylvania's Dementia play thrash and speed metal with the blue-collar conviction of a region that never fully abandoned the genre's original intensity. Formed in 2013, they tap into a sound that owes as much to Overkill's East Coast crunch as it does to the classic speed metal template.

Out of Jackson, New Jersey since 2010, Demize trade in the high-octane fusion of speed and thrash metal that made the genre dangerous in the first place. Blistering tempos, razor-wire guitar work, and a reverence for the frenetic energy of early Bay Area thrash define their attack.

Sandy, Utah's Destructinator formed in 2019 playing power/speed/thrash metal, the trifecta of velocity and epic ambition that defined the 1980s metal underground. Their music favors the melodic hook and the full-speed riff, channeling the bombast of bands that made the genre feel genuinely larger than life.

Forged in Chicago in 2021, Doomsday tears through the Midwest underground with a ferocious blend of speed and thrash metal that draws as much from early Slayer as from the first wave of power-speed crossovers. Their riffs hit with the urgency of a city that never coddles its heavy music, all breakneck tempos and serrated guitar work that leaves little room to breathe. It's lean, mean thrash built for the pit.

Out of Russellville, Arkansas, Dr. Butcher has been dealing in a particularly nasty strain of goregrind and death metal since 2011, built on surgical-grade brutality and an almost comedically grim aesthetic. The band's dedication to the uglier end of the death-grind spectrum keeps things deliberately primitive and visceral, with no interest in polish or subtlety.

Formed in 2024 out of Union, New Jersey, DTA came out of the gate swinging with the kind of urgent, no-frills aggression that defined early speed metal before thrash hardened its edges. Their sound splits the difference between the breakneck tempos of classic NWOBHM-influenced speed metal and the crunchier, pit-ready riff structures of East Coast thrash. A young band with teeth already showing.

Los Angeles's Early Man has been a reliable deliverer of meat-and-potatoes heavy/speed/thrash metal since 2004, with a sound that wears its classic influences openly and plays them with genuine muscle.

Asheville's Earth Collider came together in 2019 to deliver tight, ripping speed and thrash metal from a mountain town that punches far above its weight in the underground. Expect fast riffs and no wasted space.

please update this band

Highstown, New Jersey's Elegia have been delivering traditional power and speed metal since 2010, their songs built around soaring melodic ambition and the kind of riff gallop that lives somewhere between Running Wild and Riot.