Stick to Your Guns formed in Orange County, California in 2003, developing a metalcore sound grounded in hardcore punk ethics, melodic hooks, and socially conscious lyrics. Their album Diamond (2012) debuted at number one on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, and Disobedient (2015) and True View (2017) continued the band's steady commercial and critical momentum. Across eight studio albums through Keep Planting Flowers (2025), the band has remained consistent in both sound and values, maintaining a connection to the hardcore underground while growing a larger fanbase. Vocalist Jesse Barnett's direct and earnest lyrical approach has been a defining constant throughout the band's career.

Sticky Rat is a thrash metal band from Grand Rapids, Michigan, formed in 2025. A newly formed entry in the Midwest underground, they pursue the fast riffs and aggressive energy that define classic American thrash metal.

Stiff Richard is an Oklahoma-based heavy metal and neoclassical shred project formed in 2012. The project blends traditional heavy metal with technically demanding, classically-influenced guitar work in the vein of the hard rock and shred tradition.

Stigmata is a metalcore band from Troy, New York, formed in 2008, incorporating strong influences from crossover thrash, groove metal, and traditional thrash metal. Their sound reflects the hybrid, street-level aggression common to the upstate New York underground metal community.

Stigmata is a death/thrash metal band from Escondido, California, formed in 2008. They work within the aggressive tradition of West Coast death/thrash, combining the technical attack of thrash metal with the darker, heavier textures of death metal.

Stiles is a death metal and grindcore project from Lansing, Michigan, formed in 2012. The project operates at the intersection of grinds short, blasting intensity and death metal's more deliberately brutal compositional sensibility.

Stiletto is a heavy metal band from San Jose, California, formed in 2005. They play traditional heavy metal with a polished edge, drawing on the classic sound of the genre and contributing to the active Bay Area metal underground.

Stiletto is a heavy/power metal band from Black Jack, Missouri, formed in 2005. They combine the hard-hitting riff work of traditional heavy metal with the melodic, anthem-oriented approach of power metal, representing the Midwest's contribution to classic metal sounds.

San Diego melodic death metal and metalcore act formed in 2004, blending aggressive riffing with melodic hooks in the tradition of the early 2000s West Coast extreme metal scene.