Brewer, Maine black metal project whose EPs — Infinite Lights of Greater Stars and somewhere, I hear the falling dawn — bring poetic sensitivity to atmospheric black metal from the banks of the Penobscot River.

Chicago progressive metal project whose 2015 debut Prisoner of Sunlight channels celestial captivity through intricate compositions. The Lithuanian-derived name adds Baltic mystique to Midwestern prog.

Martinsburg, West Virginia black metal project with eight releases since 2007. Their catalog — including the deluxe reissue of Beneath the Threshold and the early EP Bleak... — traces nearly two decades of atmospheric black metal from the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.

Minneapolis/Saint Paul melodic death metal band from the Twin Cities, channeling the Southern Hemisphere-referencing name through Minnesota's cold, Nordic-influenced metal scene.

San Diego crossover thrash and metalcore project built entirely around Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions and movie quotes. Their 2008 debut Total Brutal is exactly what it sounds like — tongue-in-cheek thrash with Austrian accent vocal deliveries that transforms action movie one-liners into metal anthems.

New Hampshire NWOTHM project whose 2021 EP Gradually...Then Suddenly — borrowing Hemingway's description of going bankrupt — delivers classic heavy metal with literary sensibility from the Granite State.

Author & Punisher is the solo industrial doom and drone metal project of San Diego-based mechanical engineer Tristan Shone, active since 2004. Shone performs entirely on custom-fabricated machines and controllers called Drone Machines, devices that grew out of his masters thesis at the University of California, San Diego, and which draw directly from industrial robotics and automation. His catalog includes numerous releases on Relapse Records, with Nocturnal Birding arriving in October 2025 and marking the first time a second full bandmember, guitarist Doug Sabolick, has joined the project.

Hardinsburg, Kentucky deathcore project with seven releases since 2013. Broadcasting To The Nations and subsequent albums demonstrate a prolific commitment to crushing breakdowns from one of Kentucky's most rural communities.

Anaheim, California metalcore and thrash act with two EPs since 2021. You Will One Day Be Thought of for the Last Time delivers existential dread through aggressive riffing, the mortality-obsessed title lending unexpected depth to Orange County metal.