Painesville, Ohio sludge metal band formed in 2014 — their name leaves little ambiguity about aesthetic intent, leaning into the devil's number with the unapologetic heaviness of a band committed to grinding noise and oppressive low-end. The Lake Erie industrial belt has produced plenty of mean, ugly heavy music, and SixSixSix fits that lineage.

Oklahoma City groove metal band formed in 2022, built around the hard-driving rhythmic punch and riff-first mentality that defines the genre, drawing from the vast flatland swagger of the Southern Plains. Groove metal suits Oklahoma's unpretentious working-class rock sensibility, and Sixth Gear leans into that without apology.

Branford, Connecticut progressive and power metal band formed in 2021, blending the melodic grandeur and technical ambition of classic progressive metal with power metal's focus on soaring dynamics and clean vocal strength. Connecticut's proximity to New England's long tradition of progressive rock and metal gives Sixth House a deep well to draw from.

Cleveland heavy metal band formed in 2018, carrying on the tradition of a city that has contributed massively to American rock and metal history. Their straightforward heavy metal approach under the "450sixx" Bandcamp tag — a nod to Cleveland's 440/216 area codes — roots them firmly in the working-class Rust Belt identity that has always driven the region's heaviest music.

Sjukdom is an Oregon black metal project formed in 2017, channeling the cold, misanthropic spirit of Scandinavian second-wave traditions through an American Pacific Northwest lens. Their music is dense and unrelenting, built on tremolo-picked dissonance and bleak atmosphere.

Skab tears out of New Orleans with a crossover thrash attack that grafts the aggression of hardcore punk onto thrash metal riffing, the kind of sweaty, pit-ready sound the city's underground scene breeds naturally. Formed in 2019, they keep things short, loud, and confrontational.

Skabeater is an Appleton, Wisconsin death metal and grindcore outfit formed in 2020, weaponizing blast beats and brutish low-tuned riffs into compact bursts of controlled sonic violence. They occupy the grinding edge where goregrind sensibility meets old-school death metal ugliness.

Skadalv is an Atlanta-based black metal act that emerged in 2019, pursuing the raw, caustic strain of the genre with little concession to melody or polish. Their work sits in the grimier corners of American underground black metal, where atmosphere is forged through abrasion rather than grandeur.

Skag is a Dayton, Ohio brutal death metal and grindcore band formed in 2022, delivering punishing low-end heaviness punctuated by grind-tempo blasting and guttural vocal extremity. They represent the working-class Midwest underground tradition of no-frills, no-mercy extreme metal.