BOLTCUTTER emerged from Eugene, Oregon in 2023 with a brand of hip-hop-infused slam metal they call 'idiotic slamming chainbreak chuggery.' The band revels in absurdity, layering guttural slam vocals over crushing breakdowns and trap-influenced rhythms. Their debut material quickly earned attention in underground slam and brutal death metal circles for its unhinged energy and refusal to take itself seriously.

Savage Raw Black Metal / Ambient out of Texas.

Bonded by Blood is a thrash metal band formed in 2005 in Pomona, California, named directly after the classic Exodus album of the same title. Rooted in the Bay Area thrash tradition, the band self-released their debut EP Extinguish the Weak in 2007, which earned them a deal with Earache Records. Their debut full-length Feed the Beast (2008) and follow-ups Exiled to Earth (2010) and The Aftermath (2012) established them as committed revivalists of 1980s Bay Area aggression.

Heavy Blackened Death Metal from Houston.

Suffocating Doom / Stoner Metal from Los Angeles, California (early); Houston, Texas (later).

Bongzilla is a stoner, sludge, and doom metal band from Madison, Wisconsin, formed in 1995, whose catalog is among the most explicitly cannabis-themed in American heavy metal. The band released a string of albums on Relapse Records—including Stash (1999), Apogee (2001), Gateway (2002), and Amerijuanican (2005)—before entering a hiatus from 2009 to 2015. After reforming and returning to the touring circuit, they released their sixth studio album Dab City via Heavy Psych Sounds in June 2023, cementing their status as seminal figures in the American sludge underground.

Chicago's Born of Osiris pioneered a symphonic, keyboard-laden strain of progressive deathcore that set them apart from their peers on albums like 'The Discovery' and 'Tomorrow We Die Alive.' Lee McKinney's technical guitar work and the band's integration of electronic and orchestral elements helped define the Sumerian Records sound of the early 2010s.

Borroza are a death/thrash metal band from Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia, formed in 2000 and signed to the Colombian label Upzurdo. They released their debut full-length Fantasma in 2008—recorded and mixed at Upzurdo Records in Bucaramanga and mastered in Hollywood—and have contributed tracks to several Colombian metal compilations including Al Filo de Metal Vol. V.

Intense Heavy Metal from Fort Worth.