Formed in 2020 in Guilderland, New York, Vortex play heavy metal grounded in the hard-driving traditions of thrash with a no-frills, riff-first approach. The band leans into the kinetic energy of classic thrash while keeping the songwriting anchored in heavy metal's melodic instincts. Short on pretension and long on velocity, they represent the continuing vitality of the upstate New York metal underground.

Out of Oakland, California since 2016, Vortex of Narvik operates in the suffocating register of depressive black metal layered with ambient drift. The name evokes the desolate Arctic port city that became a symbol of brutal attrition, and the music follows suit — long, spiraling compositions that trade in anguish and cold isolation. Ambient passages erode into raw black metal without warning, keeping the listener perpetually off-balance.

Vortexed arrived from Clarksville, Tennessee in 2024 with a debut rooted in brutal death metal's most uncompromising traditions. As one of the younger entries in the brutal death scene, they came out swinging with dense low-end punishment and clinical rhythmic violence. The band wastes no time on subtlety — every track is a concentrated exercise in technical brutality.

Pittsburgh's Vortican formed in 2023 at the intersection of progressive metal, groove metal, and death metal — a combination that sets them apart in a city with a long industrial metal lineage. Their sound shifts between churning groove-driven riffs and more complex progressive structures, with death metal's weight underpinning the whole thing. Hard rock sensibility gives their songs a melodic accessibility that keeps even the heaviest sections from becoming purely punishing.

Colossal Stoner / Doom Metal / Rock out of Texas.

Votan has been channeling epic black metal out of Corpus Christi, Texas since 2016, drawing on the mythological resonance of the Mesoamerican deity their name invokes. The South Texas coastal setting is an unlikely crucible for this kind of sweeping, grandiose black metal, which makes the project's ambitions feel more singular. Their compositions reach for the kind of mythic grandeur associated with European epic black metal while remaining rooted in their own cultural context.

Charlotte, North Carolina's Votnut have been grinding since 2012, building a catalogue of short, furious grindcore that has no patience for anything that doesn't immediately attack. The band fits squarely within grindcore's tradition of radical brevity and maximum intensity, with songs that land like a series of quick body blows. More than a decade into their existence, they remain a stubborn fixture in the Southeast underground.

Connecticut's Vouroborus have been fusing blackened death metal and grindcore since 2015, carving out a niche in the dense, chaotic overlap between those extremes. The band's name evokes the ouroboros — the serpent consuming itself — which fits a sound built on cycles of escalating brutality and collapsing structure. Their approach draws equally from death metal's heaviness, black metal's atmosphere, and grindcore's violent concision.

VOWWS are the duo of Matt James and Rizz, who describe their shadowed blend of post-punk, industrial rock, darkwave, and pop melody as death pop. The Great Sun introduced a cinematic version of that sound, with low-slung guitars, icy synths, drum-machine pulse, and guest appearances that connected the project to goth, industrial, and heavy alternative circles. Under the World refined the contrast between Matt's darker vocal tone and Rizz's clearer, spectral presence, letting songs move like nocturnal film scenes rather than standard rock arrangements. Singles such as "One by One," "Shadow Man," and "Wait" pushed the duo's writing toward sharper hooks while keeping the sense of dread intact. Their later album I'll Fill Your House With An Army expanded the recorded palette with outside players and production help while preserving the core mood: romantic decay, uneasy glamour, and melodies that seem to glow from inside machinery. VOWWS rarely rely on volume for intensity. Their weight comes from restraint, negative space, and the way their songs make desire, fear, and nostalgia feel trapped in the same room.