Los Angeles's Death Dealer Union plant their flag firmly in classic heavy metal territory, channeling the riff-first sensibility and hard rock muscle that defined the genre's golden era. Formed in 2023, they're part of a Southern California revival of no-frills, hook-driven metal.

Pennsylvania's Death Descending operate out of Du Bois, combining death metal brutality with hardcore's confrontational energy for a style rooted in aggression rather than technicality. Formed in 2023, they represent the continuing vitality of extreme metal in the Rust Belt.

Pomona, California's Death Descends emerged in 2024 fusing the suffocating density of death metal with the frost and malice of black metal, carving space in the Inland Empire's growing extreme metal underground. Their sound leans into dissonance and speed in equal measure.

Providence, Rhode Island's Death Doom Thrash wear their influences as a banner rather than a disguise, threading death/doom's weight through the New England underground since 2018. The name is a manifesto: expect slow grinding heaviness with occasional bursts of thrash-driven urgency.

Indianapolis's Death Ensemble weld blackened riffing to thrash metal's kinetic momentum, earning their stripes in Indiana's underground since 2012. Their blackened thrash attack trades melody for iron-fisted aggression and cold, nihilistic atmosphere.

Knoxville, Tennessee's Death Etiquette bring technical death metal's surgical precision to a Southern rock city that rarely produces extreme metal of this caliber. Since 2022 the band has developed a complex, intricate approach where riff arrangements feel more like puzzles than conventional song structures.

Death Exclamations is a location-unknown black metal entity formed in 2020, operating at arm's length from the scene with a raw and uncompromising approach. The band's anonymity feels intentional — just a name, a Bandcamp page, and the music itself.

Dayton, Ohio's Death Fetish have been serving up brutal death metal punishment since 2020, feeding the Midwest underground with punishing slams and guttural vocals. Their approach is unflinching — purely about impact and physicality.

Portland's Death Fetishist operate at the cold, suffocating intersection of black and doom metal, cloaking slow, miserable riff progressions in a haze of dissonance and despair since 2016. Their music is patient and punishing, demanding the listener surrender to the weight.