Greensburg, Indiana's Dis have been wielding black/death metal in the rural Midwest since 2018, an unlikely setting that only sharpens the isolation and fury in their sound. There is something fitting about extreme metal emerging from small-town Indiana — it sounds like it has nowhere else to go.

Disburial is an old-school death metal band from Quito, Ecuador, formed in 2018. Drawing on themes of death, darkness, Lovecraftian horror, and the macabre, the trio has released two EPs: Dawn of Ancient Horrors (2018) and Vermin Void (2020).

Dark, grim black/thrash from Houston with crustpunk and doom influences. Released Under Grim Skies in 2022.

Vicious Death / Thrash Metal from Dallas.

Dallas's Discern arrived in 2023 with a death/thrash attack that slots naturally into the Texas tradition of technically sharp, aggressive metal. Young but purposeful, they represent a new generation picking up the thread of a scene that has always rewarded heaviness and precision.

Fierce Heavy Metal out of Texas.

Venomous Black Metal from Dallas.

Columbus, Ohio's Discretionary Kayoss have been tearing through the crossover thrash playbook since 2020, combining punk's stripped-down aggression with metal's firepower in the tradition the genre was built on. They bring a chaotic energy to the Columbus underground that the city's thriving DIY scene has always made room for.

Grafton, Ohio's Disembodied have been delivering brutal death metal since 2019, carving out their sound in the working-class industrial corridor between Cleveland and Columbus. Their approach is unsparing — blasting, guttural, and built for the kind of listener who measures heaviness in tonnage.