Casper, Wyoming's The Band Repent bring thrash metal to one of the most remote corners of the American metal underground, a fitting backdrop for music that thrives on isolation and intensity. Formed in 2021, they're among the very few acts flying the thrash flag in Wyoming's sparse scene, and all the more notable for it.

The Barbarians of California is the heavy side project of AWOLNATION's Aaron Bruno and longtime producer Eric Stenman, born from their shared roots in late-'90s California hardcore and skate culture. Rounded out by AWOLNATION members Zach Irons and Isaac Carpenter, the project strips away pop pretense in favor of raw, thrashy aggression that reconnects Bruno with his hardcore origins in bands like Insurgence.

New Jersey's The Bardbarians lean into a wide stylistic range under a heavy metal banner, their name suggesting something both ancient and unruly — music informed by sword-and-sorcery theatrics and classic metal energy rather than a single subgenre's orthodoxy. Formed in 2021, they're among the newer acts keeping traditional metal's adventurous spirit alive in the Garden State.

Canton, Ohio's The Behest of Serpents deal in melodic death metal with a coiling, venom-laced attack that suits their name — sharp melodic leads threaded through a backbone of heavy, purposeful riffing. Formed in 2021, they're part of a new wave of Midwestern acts proving that the region's industrial heritage continues to produce some of the country's most serious death metal.

Ann Arbor, Michigan's The Biscuit Merchant bring a playfully irreverent name to the serious business of progressive death metal — music that combines technical complexity, dynamic composition, and genuine death metal aggression into something more adventurous than most of their contemporaries manage. Formed in 2019, they represent Ann Arbor's tradition of musicians who bring intellectual rigor to the heaviest possible music.

Assembled in Los Angeles in 2019 by vocalist Jordan Tyler and drummer Mark Hylander, The Bites are a Hollywood hard rock outfit devoted to the sleaze and swagger of 1980s glam and arena rock. Their debut album Squeeze channels Mötley Crüe-style hooks and Van Halen-influenced guitar work through a contemporary production sensibility, landing them tours supporting Sebastian Bach and The Dead Daisies. The band established themselves quickly on the LA club circuit before expanding to international audiences.

Morristown, New Jersey's The Black Calculus have been sharpening a thrash/speed metal attack since 2020, bringing the precision and velocity of the genre's classic era to a Northeast scene that doesn't always get its due in the national conversation. Their music treats aggression as a technical problem to be solved with maximum efficiency.

The Black Crowes formed in Atlanta and became one of the major American hard-rock bands of the early 1990s by reviving blues, soul, gospel, and Southern rock language with unruly conviction. Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson drove the band from its earliest days, turning Shake Your Money Maker into a breakthrough on the strength of "Jealous Again," "Twice as Hard," "She Talks to Angels," and their version of "Hard to Handle." The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion deepened the band's voice with "Remedy," "Thorn in My Pride," "Sting Me," and a looser, more jam-oriented feel. Later records such as Amorica, Three Snakes and One Charm, By Your Side, Lions, Warpaint, Before the Frost...Until the Freeze, and Happiness Bastards showed a band that could be volatile but musically rooted. The Black Crowes fit hard-rock scope through their guitar-driven weight, touring history with heavy rock acts, and place in mainstream rock culture. Their power lies in feel: swaggering riffs, gospel-schooled vocals, and a refusal to make roots rock sound polite.

Detroit's The Black Dahlia Murder became one of melodic death metal's most beloved and prolific American acts under the late Trevor Strnad, whose encyclopedic passion for death metal and charismatic personality made him an ambassador for the genre. Their albums, from 'Unhallowed' through 'Verminous,' combined razor-sharp Scandinavian melodic death metal with American hardcore intensity and Strnad's educated, horror-drenched lyricism. Following Strnad's tragic death in 2022, the band has continued his legacy with vocalist Brian Eschbach at the helm, honoring the spirit of a frontman who made death metal genuinely fun and accessible.