Detroit's Montage have been working the heavy/power metal spectrum since 2002, combining soaring melodic ambition with the blunt, blue-collar heaviness that defines the Motor City's long metallic tradition.

Austin doom trio influenced by Neurosis, the Melvins, and Eyehategod.

Born in Longview, Texas, Monte Pittman is a guitarist best known as Madonna's long-standing live bandleader, having joined her touring operation in 2001, while also serving as bassist and composer for Prong and later Ministry. His solo career, launched with The Deepest Dark in 2009, explores hard rock and heavy metal, with seven albums released including the concurrent 2018 releases Between the Space and Better or Worse, which demonstrated the range of his songwriting across aggressive and acoustic styles.

Cleveland's Montez formed in 2021 and play speed/power metal with the breakneck intensity the genre demands — sharp, melodic, and built on a tradition that the Midwest has quietly sustained since the 1980s.

A death metal act from Newhall, California active since 2012, Montezuma operate in the Los Angeles underground with the punishing directness the genre requires — heavy, methodical, and uninterested in subtlety.

Out of Longview, Texas, Monthra have been fusing groove and thrash metal since 2017 with the kind of knuckle-dragging momentum and snapping riff patterns that fit the East Texas industrial corridor they come from.

San Jose's Montra formed in 2011 and blend groove metal and thrash with a hardcore backbone, bringing the Bay Area's deep punk and metal cross-pollination tradition to bear on aggressive, pit-ready material.

Named for the vengeful narrator of Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado,' Irvine's Montresor have been delivering heavy and power metal since 2011 — ambitious, melodic, and steeped in classic metal storytelling from Southern California.

A Buffalo, New York heavy metal band formed in 2021, Monument began in the city's storied tradition of hard, guitar-driven music and have since evolved toward a harder rock sensibility while retaining their metal roots.