Vixen are a Saint Paul, Minnesota hard rock and glam metal band whose commercial peak in the late 1980s made them one of the most visible all-women groups in mainstream heavy rock. Founded by guitarist Jan Kuehnemund and later associated with the classic lineup of Kuehnemund, Janet Gardner, Share Ross, and Roxy Petrucci, the band broke through with the 1988 self-titled album and the hit Edge of a Broken Heart. Their sound sits in the polished lane of melodic hard rock, with tight guitar parts, harmony-rich choruses, arena-sized drums, and a balance between pop accessibility and metal-era flash. Rev It Up continued that identity with songs such as How Much Love and Love Is a Killer, showing a band that could compete directly in the MTV hard rock environment rather than being treated as a novelty. Vixen's history includes long breaks, lineup changes, reunion activity, and the lasting shadow of Kuehnemund's death, but the name remains important. They matter because they carved out space in a scene that often marketed women as exceptions. Vixen's best songs endure as sharp, melodic, professional hard rock, carried by musicianship, hooks, and a legacy of persistence.

Los Angeles melodic death metal band formed in 2013, taking their name from the historical figure whose cruelties gave birth to Dracula mythology and pairing it with a decade-plus of riff-driven songwriting that balances aggression with atmosphere. Shaped by the competitive LA metal underground, they pursue the Scandinavian-influenced tradition of letting darkness and melody feed each other rather than fight.

Richmond, Virginia black metal band formed in 2019, drawing on a city whose underground metal community has consistently punched above its weight. Voarm channels that hard-edged local intensity into cold, atmospheric black metal that carries the damp, heavy feeling of the mid-Atlantic's woods and industrial remnants.

Voces del Odio is a metalcore band from Pedro Aguirre Cerda, Santiago, Chile, formed in 2008. The band released two EPs — "Esclavos del hambre" in 2010 and "Esclavos del hambre II" in 2011 — with lyrics exploring themes of apocalypse, society, personal struggle, and hate.

American black metal entity formed in 2012, with location withheld — a fitting anonymity for a project whose name implies something summoned rather than simply formed. Active for over a dozen years within the shadow network of orthodox American black metal, Vocivus has cultivated a ritualistic approach that prioritizes atmosphere and mystique over visibility.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania post-black metal project formed in 2022, their name evoking submersion and drowning against the backdrop of the city's steel-gray skies and industrial waterways. Vodoem reaches beyond traditional black metal's orthodoxy into atmospheric, introspective territory, building music with emotional depth alongside its darker impulses.

Columbia, Missouri heavy metal band formed in 2017, rooted in the traditional genre's melodic structures, twin-guitar riffing, and commitment to craft over extremity. Vohnkar represents the American heartland's quieter but persistent metal community, delivering riff-forward music that values classic heavy metal's clarity and energy on its own terms.

Columbus, Ohio grindcore and death metal band formed in 2016, fusing the genre's velocity and crust punk's anarchic rawness with death metal's low-end devastation. Rooted in Columbus's scrappy DIY underground, Voice of Crows produce music with both political sharpness and physical force, treating brevity and brutality as equally essential tools.

Formed in Cleveland in 2021, Voices of the Damned fuse the punishing weight of death metal with groove metal's rhythmic swagger, building songs around thick, locked-in riffs and a relentless sense of momentum. The Cleveland scene's blue-collar aggression runs through everything they do, grounding the brutality in something physical and immediate. They're a young band arriving fully formed.