Progressive thrash from San Antonio. Featured future Riot drummer Bobby Jarzombek.

Jacksonville, Florida's Juggernaut stake out traditional heavy metal territory with a direct, no-frills approach — built on the back of classic riffs and a sound more interested in songcraft than technicality.

Spartanburg, South Carolina's Juggernaut lean hard into the regional flavor of Southern metal, fused with the slow, hazy density of stoner metal — humid, heavy, and dragged down to just the right tempo.

St. Louis Park, Minnesota's Juggernaut bring a northern take on stoner metal — fuzzed-out riffs and hazy grooves from a state whose long winters seem purpose-built for heavy, slow-burning music.

Houston hardcore you can dance to. Part of the new wave of Houston hardcore.

Jungle Rot formed in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1992 as a side project of Jim Harte and Joe Thomas, both then members of Illinois thrash act Prisoner, and have since grown into one of the most prolific and consistent acts in American old-school death metal. Across ten studio albums from Slaughter the Weak (1998) through A Call to Arms (2022), the band has maintained a punishing mid-paced death metal attack laced with thrash and crossover influences.

Cincinnati's Junior Crime Fighters have been pairing stoner fuzz with doom's crawling tempos since 2014, building a sound out of Ohio's rich heavy underground that rewards patience with crushing, satisfying payoffs.

Kansas City post-black metal act JunkHead emerged in 2022 with a sound that expands black metal's sonic palette into atmospheric, textural territory — bleak and expansive rather than simply aggressive, with the emotional ambiguity the post-black genre does best.

Los Angeles stoner/doom act Jurassic Witch conjure a prehistoric-weight heaviness — low-tuned, fuzz-drenched riffs moving at tectonic pace through a haze of amplifier worship. Formed in 2021, they fit naturally into LA's vibrant heavy underground.