Progressive metal from Holyoke, Massachusetts, active since 2013, Writing in the Skies pursue the technically ambitious, emotionally expressive side of the genre rather than its more self-indulgent tendencies. They've cultivated a dedicated following in New England's prog-metal underground with material that rewards patient listening.

Pompano Beach, Florida's Written in Blood have been fusing power metal's melodic ambitions with the speed and aggression of thrash since 2018, landing on a sound that's as likely to soar as it is to tear through a riff. South Florida's metal scene has produced stranger combinations, but few that work as cleanly.

A metalcore band from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, formed in 2018, Written in Gray work within the genre's dual-mode language of aggression and melody without veering into the pop-adjacent territory that defines many of their peers. They represent the more earnest, guitar-driven wing of the contemporary metalcore scene.

Wrong formed in Miami, Florida in 2014, drawing together veterans of Torche, Kylesa, and Capsule to produce a noise rock sound rooted in bludgeoning groove, dissonant melody, and cathartic vocal delivery. Their self-titled debut (2016, Relapse Records) established the band's blunt, riff-forward approach across eleven tracks, and Feel Great (2018) sharpened the formula with increased speed and melodic density. The band occupies the heavier end of noise rock, sharing sonic territory with the Amphetamine Reptile tradition while incorporating the Southern sludge sensibilities of its members' prior projects.

Denton, Texas's Wrought of Obsidian have been one of the more distinctive voices in the state's black metal underground since 2010, working a melodic black/death vein with sharp, often haunting guitar work that draws on Scandinavian melodic traditions without simply replicating them. Denton's art-heavy cultural scene has clearly left its mark on their approach.

An Indianapolis melodic death metal band formed in 2023, Wrought with Plague arrived with the dual-guitar melody and aggressive attack that defines the genre's most enduring works. Still establishing themselves in Indiana's underground, they've planted themselves firmly in the European-influenced wing of American melodeath.

Eugene, Oregon's Wroughting Woods channel the dense forests and grey skies of the Pacific Northwest into atmospheric black metal that bleeds into dark ambient territory, active since 2019. The band's sound is as much about texture and mood as it is riffs — long, drifting passages that reward full-album immersion.

San Jose, California's Wrvth have one of the more interesting trajectories in extreme metal, beginning as a technical death metal and deathcore act before gradually shifting toward progressive post-metal and metalcore over the course of their career since 2010. The evolution is genuine rather than expedient, with each era of the band producing work that's stylistically distinct but consistently ambitious.

A black metal project with no listed city, Wuldorgast emerged in 2024 with a name that evokes Old English or proto-Germanic mysticism — a fitting frame for black metal rooted in ancient, unknowable imagery. Their debut material places them in the US underground's more obscurantist corner.