A Louisiana black metal project formed in 2024, Detest the Sun channels the oppressive Southern heat into raw, hateful black metal in the tradition of solo projects that treat atmosphere as a weapon. The name suggests photophobia elevated to philosophical position — a worldview as well as an aesthetic.

Pearblossom, California's Deth Bed emerged in 2020 playing blackened death metal — a style that fuses black metal's atmospheric menace with death metal's low-end brutality into something uglier and more volatile than either parent genre. The high desert location north of Los Angeles adds an isolation and grit their music wears naturally.

Dethklok began as the fictional band at the center of Brendon Small's Adult Swim animated series 'Metalocalypse,' but the music proved too good to remain fictional. Small, who writes and performs nearly all the music, channels melodic death metal through absurdist comedy, creating albums like 'The Dethalbum' that are genuinely impressive thrash and death metal records in their own right. The project's transition from cartoon novelty to legitimate touring act with Gene Hoglan on drums is one of metal's most unlikely success stories.

Richmond, Virginia's Dethorned have been working the death/thrash underground since 2014, channeling the city's strong extreme metal tradition into riff-driven material that balances death metal's darkness with thrash's angular velocity. Richmond has always bred bands that play with purpose, and Dethorned fits that mold.

Long Island's Detriment have been thrashing since 2012, drawing on the suburban aggression and East Coast swagger that has driven New York-area metal for decades. Their music is angular and direct — thrash made by people who grew up in the shadow of New York City with plenty of frustration to channel.

Texas thrash/death metal. Underrated and vicious, part of the late-80s Texas thrash explosion.

Chicago's Devastation emerged in the late 1980s at the harder edges of the death/thrash continuum, combining the brutality beginning to emerge from the death metal underground with the technical aggression thrash was refining at the same moment. Their early Chicago recordings place them in a lineage of Midwestern extremity that continues to influence the city's scene.

Snohomish, Washington's Devastation Wagon have been rolling through the Pacific Northwest thrash underground since 2011, delivering fast-picking riff attacks with the workmanlike consistency of a band that plays because they mean it. The name suggests forward momentum above all else, and their music backs that up.

Brooklyn's Devastation Wagon have been grinding out vicious crossover thrash since 2011, blending hardcore punk fury with shredding metal riffs in the best tradition of the New York underground. Their sound channels the raw energy of the city's DIY scene — fast, mean, and built for the pit.