Seattle deathcore and death metal band formed in 2012, drawing from the Pacific Northwest's fertile extreme metal underground to craft music built on technical brutality and the chugging intensity that defines deathcore at its most unrelenting. Over a decade in, they are a fixture of the Seattle underground.

Orlando, Florida sludge and stoner metal band active since 2010, locking into slow, tar-thick grooves and feedback-laden heaviness with the swampy persistence that Florida's humid underground breeds. Their name alone signals the kind of bleakly humorous, road-worn vibe their music inhabits.

Tampa death metal institution founded in 1995 by ex-Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes, known for mid-paced, groove-driven death metal with blunt lyrical carnage and a death 'n' roll swagger that separates them from the more technical end of Florida's scene. Prolific and uncompromising, they remain one of Tampa's most recognizable extreme metal exports.

Blackened death metal band formed in 2008 out of Maricopa and the Ak-Chin Indian Community in Arizona, fusing black metal's cold fury with death metal's pulverizing weight in the stark desert Southwest. Their geographic origins — an indigenous community on the southern Arizona plains — give their darkness a particular edge of outsider extremity.

Dynamic Progressive Metal from Houston.

Austin, Texas band formed in 2017 operating at the intersection of progressive death metal and metalcore, combining technical compositional ambition with the rhythmic directness and emotional intensity that metalcore brings. Their name is provocative and grotesque in the tradition of death metal, belying the progressive sophistication of the music.

Wausau, Wisconsin heavy metal and thrash band formed in 2019, delivering blunt-force heaviness from a small midwestern city in the tradition of regional American metal that never needed a coastal scene to validate it. Their name evokes the workmanlike physicality of their approach — nothing ornate, just weight and impact.

Nashville progressive and melodic death metal band formed in 2023, bringing a sophisticated structural approach to the genre in a city better known for country than extreme metal. Their sound combines the harmonic complexity of progressive metal with the forward momentum and melodic guitar work of the death metal tradition.

Los Angeles sludge and doom metal band formed in 2017, operating in the long shadow of the city's thriving heavy underground with dense, slow-moving riffs and the kind of suffocating atmosphere that characterizes the best of the West Coast doom scene. The "sixesdoom" Bandcamp tag underscores where their loyalties lie.