Skinlab formed in San Francisco, California in 1994, carving out a groove-heavy sound that bridged the aggression of Bay Area thrash with the downtempo churn of early 1990s groove metal and the emerging nu-metal movement. The band's early albums Disembody: The New Flesh and Bound, Gagged and Blindfolded were released with assistance from Robb Flynn of Machine Head, who helped them access the European touring circuit. After disbanding in 2003 and reforming multiple times, Skinlab continued releasing material through the 2000s and 2010s, including The Scars Between Us (2009) and the single Flesh Wounds (2024) on WURMgroup.

Hailing from Glens Falls, New York, Skinless are one of the defining forces of American brutal death metal — a band that built their reputation on relentlessly heavy riffs, guttural extremity, and over two decades of uncompromising output.

Fort Collins, Colorado's Skinned have been in the brutal death metal game since 1998, making them one of the longer-running outfits in the Mountain West underground — characterized by the kind of thick, punishing riffs that come from years of refinement.

A brand new thrash metal band out of Providence, Rhode Island, Skinned Alive (formed 2025) plant themselves firmly in the crossover tradition of that city's historically active hardcore and punk scene.

San Jose's Skinner, formed in 2022, blend the melodic ambition of power metal with the velocity of thrash — a Bay Area project that draws on the region's rich legacy of high-energy, technically inclined heavy metal.

Heavy Sludge / Death Metal / Hardcore out of Texas.

Corona, California's Skinslip work the intersection of sludge and doom, conjuring slow, weight-bearing riffs that reflect the smoggy, sun-bleached desolation of the Inland Empire since their formation in 2014.

A black metal act from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, Skitchrist have been operating in the small-town underground since 2013, crafting adversarial, lo-fi black metal with a provincial rawness that suits their rural central PA origins.

Pomona, California's Skitz bring a heavy metal and hard rock sensibility to the Inland Empire underground, a scene formed since 2011 that blends the blue-collar grit of the 626 with classic heavy riffing.