Los Angeles's Phantom Horde brings a sweeping melodic death metal vision to the sprawling city — hook-laden riffs and dual-guitar harmonies with a cinematic scope befitting the city of angels.

Phantom Witch is a thrash metal band from Salinas, California, founded in 2012 by drummer Q Minor and taking their current name after guitarist Travis Ochoa joined in 2017. The band's self-titled album appeared in 2018, with subsequent releases including Forced To Worship and Psychogenic Death demonstrating their commitment to a straightforward, riff-driven Bay Area and Los Angeles thrash sound rooted in Slayer, Testament, and Exodus. They remain active in the California metal circuit.

Classically-charged power metal from Dallas.

Phil Anselmo's post-Pantera project delivering raw, unfiltered thrash and sludge.

Boston's Phlegmesis arrived on the death metal scene in 2022 with guttural intent, delivering rotten old-school death metal from a city with a proud tradition of producing extreme extremity.

Phobia is a grindcore band from Orange County, California, formed in 1990 and one of the longer-lived American acts in the genre. Operating in the tradition of crust punk and grindcore with explicitly socio-political and anarchist lyrical content, the band released albums across labels including Slap-a-Ham, Willowtip, Relapse, and Deep Six Records, with Means of Existence (1998), Serenity Through Pain (2001), and Cruel (2006) among their key releases. Their sound adheres to blastbeat-driven grindcore orthodoxy, distinguished by consistent political conviction rather than genre experimentation.

Phronexis is a thrash metal band from La Paz, Bolivia, originally founded in 2017 as a one-man project by Alvin Phronexis before evolving into a full band. The name is a stylized take on the ancient Greek concept of phronesis — a form of practical wisdom or mindfulness — which informs the band's introspective lyrical direction alongside themes of disease, horror, and death. Signed to The Foul Swamp Productions, they have released two full-lengths, Pestiferous (2020) and Opulence of Metal (2024), establishing themselves as a consistent force in Bolivia's thrash underground.

Stamford, Connecticut's Physics of Demise applies a systematic ferocity to metalcore — tight, mechanical riff construction underpinned by the kind of breakdown-driven catharsis the genre does best.

San Diego's Pierce The Veil, led by vocalist-guitarist Vic Fuentes, elevated post-hardcore into something breathlessly intricate and emotionally intense, with albums like 'Collide with the Sky' and 'Selfish Machines' becoming defining records for a generation of scene kids. Their sound weaves complex guitar work, Latin-influenced rhythms, and Fuentes's distinctive high-register vocals into compositions that shift between heavy breakdowns and sweeping melodic passages. PTV's influence on the 2010s wave of post-hardcore and their devoted fanbase have made them one of the genre's most enduring and commercially successful acts.