Ripping Technical / Melodic Death Metal from Fort Worth.

Heavy Heavy Metal out of Texas.

Frigid Atmospheric Black Metal out of Texas.

Zakk Sabbath is Zakk Wylde's devoted tribute to Black Sabbath, performing the Sabbath catalog with thunderous fidelity alongside bassist Blasko and drummer Joey Castillo. Far from a casual side project, the power trio attacks Ozzy-era Sabbath classics with the raw energy and reverence of musicians who grew up worshipping at the altar of Tony Iommi.

Zebrahead formed in Orange County in 1996 and built a long-running career by fusing pop punk, rap rock, ska-punk energy, and alternative-metal bite. The band's early records, including Waste of Mind and Playmate of the Year, captured a late-1990s moment when punk hooks and hip-hop cadence were colliding across rock radio. MFZB became a defining album, with "Rescue Me," "Into You," and "Falling Apart" sharpening the mix of Ali Tabatabaee's rapped vocals, melodic singing, fast guitar parts, and huge choruses. Broadcast to the World, Phoenix, Get Nice!, Call Your Friends, Brain Invaders, and later EPs kept the band especially active internationally, where their high-energy live approach found a durable audience. Zebrahead fit punk and metal-adjacent scope because their sound regularly crosses pop punk, rapcore, and hard alternative rock. Their best songs are built for motion: quick drums, bright hooks, shouted tradeoffs, and enough guitar crunch to avoid feeling lightweight. Zebrahead's identity is deliberately restless, turning genre collision into a reliable engine rather than a passing gimmick.

Formed in Seattle, Washington in 1992, Zeke built their reputation on an unrelenting fusion of hardcore punk speed, Motörhead-rooted rock and roll, and the hot rod and motorcycle culture of the American Pacific Northwest. After early releases on Scooch Pooch Records, they signed with Epitaph and released Kicked in the Teeth (1997), and later moved to Relapse Records for 'Til the Livin' End (2004) and the long-awaited Hellbender (2017), their first studio album in thirteen years. Often cited as godfathers of speed rock, they remain a benchmark for the collision of punk velocity and hard rock directness.

Blistering Heavy Metal with Thrash Metal elements from Bastrop.

Zero 9:36 is the heavy rap-rock project of Matthew Cullen, whose songs fuse clipped hip-hop delivery with hard rock impact, electronic pressure, and nu metal tension. You Will Not Be Saved introduced a direct, anxious style built around tracks like "Leave the Light On," where fast vocal patterns meet guitar weight and melodic release. ...If You Don't Save Yourself expanded the formula with bigger hooks and collaborations, including the Ice Nine Kills version of "Adrenaline," which pushed the project further into active-rock territory. Later releases such as None of Us Are Getting Out and They Were Always Here sharpened the darker mood, pairing distorted riffs, trap-influenced rhythm, and shouted choruses with lyrics about self-sabotage, anger, and survival. Zero's strength is the way he treats heaviness as rhythmic punctuation. The guitars often land like impacts around the vocal cadence, while the drums and programming keep the songs moving with the urgency of modern hip-hop. The result is compact, confrontational music that can swing from melodic vulnerability to blunt aggression within the same hook.

Ambitious Melodic Progressive Metal from Fairfield.