Whittier, California's Galicia merge black and death metal into something uncompromising and direct — no atmospheric softening, just raw extremity from a band that formed in 2021.

Los Angeles brutal death metallers Gangrenous Consumption operate at the outer limits of heaviness, building their sound on relentless low-end punishment and technical brutality since 2018. They're part of a strong Southern California brutal death scene with no shortage of extremity.

Santa Cruz, California's Gargantula has been spinning its web since 2015, weaving together progressive, stoner, doom, and death metal into something strange and sprawling. Their compositions wander freely across tempos and moods, held together by a psychedelic, spidery sensibility.

Out of Torrance, California, Gatekeeper have been delivering no-frills death metal with a stripped-back, old-school conviction since 2013. Their approach favors bone-snapping riffs and guttural conviction over flash.

San Francisco's Gateways inhabit a singular space where progressive death metal collides with neoclassical shred, resulting in technically fearsome music that refuses to sit still. Since forming in 2011, they've pushed the limits of what guitar-driven extreme metal can absorb.

San Jose's Gemanon bring melodic death metal to the Bay Area's underground, pairing hooky, lead-driven arrangements with genuine death metal aggression since 2012. They sit comfortably in the lineage of Scandinavian melodeath but with a distinctly American directness.

Brutal death metal from Salinas, California, Genethliac have been sharpening their sound since 2014 with the low-end density and surgical aggression the genre demands. Their name refers to astrology of nativities — the stars, apparently, align violently.

Santa Cruz's Genghis arrived at melodic death metal after an early reggae phase — an unusual trajectory that lends their sound a certain openness even within a brutal framework. Since settling into the genre around 2008, they have built a solid catalog on the California coast.

Out of Orange County, California, this Genocide delivers punishing death metal with the dense, suffocating weight that the genre demands. Active since 2013, they traffic in brutality without apology.