Los Angeles-based Sink Shower have been carving their niche in the city's extreme metal underground since 2018, combining black metal's abrasive atmosphere and tremolo intensity with the brute physicality of death metal in a way that feels cold and urban rather than pastoral. Their music reflects the disorienting density and alienation of Southern California's sprawling megalopolis.

A California progressive death metal project formed in 2024, Sinthetik Sentienz blends the harmonic complexity and compositional ambition of progressive metal with the brutality and technical demands of modern death metal.

A California atmospheric black/death metal act active since 2015, Sire melds the sweeping, post-influenced atmospherics of atmospheric black metal with the crushing brutality of death metal, crafting dense and layered sonic environments.

Los Angeles outfit formed in 2014 who fuse the twin-guitar melodicism of Scandinavian death metal with power metal's soaring sensibility, resulting in music that is both technically demanding and built around hooky, anthemic structures. Their sound draws equally from In Flames-era melodeath and the more grandiose end of American power metal.

Orange County, California melodic death metal band with roots going back to 2004, giving them over two decades in a scene that has seen plenty of turnover. Their melodic death approach is steeped in the Gothenburg tradition, applying it to the sun-baked Southern California underground.

Skeletal Incineration is a San Diego, California death/black/thrash metal band formed in 2004, forging a destructive hybrid of the three styles that leans into the darkest corners of each — the speed of thrash, the malevolence of black metal, and the low-end grotesquerie of death metal. San Diego has historically been fertile ground for this kind of cross-genre extreme metal brutality.

Skeletal Remains is a Whittier, California death metal band formed in 2011, widely recognized as one of the most accomplished practitioners of old-school death metal in the contemporary underground — their technically refined but atmosphere-rich style draws deep from the Florida and European wells. They have built a dedicated international following through consistent, high-quality releases that never chase trends.

A California death metal outfit with deep roots in hardcore, Skinfather (formed 2012) carve out a punishing middle ground between the two genres — delivering crushing riffs and pit-ready aggression that owes as much to the beatdown scene as it does to old-school death metal.

Out of Bakersfield, California, Skinjob have been grinding out death metal since 2012 in a city not known for its metal scene, which gives their output a flinty, self-sufficient character that sets them apart from their coastal counterparts.