Portland's Lividus pull from melodic death, progressive, and thrash metal, building technically ambitious compositions that reward close listening with layered, shifting dynamics.

Born out of Los Angeles in 2020, Living Darkness channel classic heavy metal's dark, hook-driven spirit into a fresh sound rooted in atmosphere and riff weight.

Atlanta's Living Decay have been churning out uncompromising death metal since 2009, blending Southern grit with methodical, carnage-focused brutality.

Intricate Extreme Progressive Metal from Fort Worth.

Lizzy Borden is a Los Angeles heavy metal band formed in 1983 by vocalist Gregory Charles Harges, who performs and records under the band's name, and drummer Joey Scott. Rooted in the shock rock theatrics of Alice Cooper and Kiss, the band signed to Metal Blade Records in 1984 and released a string of albums through the late 1980s, reaching their commercial peak with Visual Lies (1987). After a prolonged hiatus, Lizzy Borden returned with My Midnight Things (2018), their first album in eleven years, which charted on the Billboard 200.

Knoxville's Lo Pan channel pure grindcore energy into short, violent bursts, keeping the chaos tightly coiled and the runtime mercifully — or brutally — brief.

Zion, Illinois duo Local H have spent over three decades proving that two people can generate more sonic fury than most full bands, with guitarist Scott Lucas coaxing impossibly thick tones through a split bass-guitar rig. Their 1998 single 'Bound for the Floor' became an alt-rock radio staple, but albums like 'Pack Up the Cats' and 'Hey, Killer' demonstrate far more depth and creative ambition than any one-hit narrative suggests. Fiercely independent and relentlessly touring, Local H remain one of the great workhorses of American rock.

A New Hampshire one-person raw black metal project, Lochwood Tower emerged in 2023 with a lo-fi, frost-bitten aesthetic rooted in solitude and primitive fury.

Columbia, Missouri's Locked Shut deliver a ferocious brand of Midwest hardcore fronted by Alex Kelly, with serrated vocals tearing over jet-black basslines and galloping drums. Their breakout album 'The New Chaos' packs eight tracks into fifteen blistering minutes, drawing attention from national heavy music outlets like Lambgoat. The band strikes a blow for the Midwest hardcore underground with riffs that are lean, mean, and built for the pit.