Stockton, California act formed in 2011 that blends technical and melodic death metal, combining intricate fretwork with the harmonic sensibilities of the Gothenburg school to produce a sophisticated and aggressive sound.

Black/death metal band from Hawthorne, California, formed in 2012, combining the rawness of black metal with the brutality of death metal in the tradition of South Bay extreme metal.

Synrah is an industrial symphonic death/black metal band from Norco, California, formed in 2013, blending orchestral grandeur with mechanized heaviness and extreme metal aggression into a densely layered sound.

Syrebris is a progressive death metal band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2013, weaving intricate song structures and technical proficiency into a sound that balances brutality with compositional depth.

Systematic Failure is a melodic death metal and metalcore band from Yreka, California, formed in 2017, blending the melodic sensibility and twin-guitar harmonies of melodic death metal with the rhythmic intensity of metalcore.

Los Angeles' Temple of Dagon have been conjuring death/thrash savagery since 2014, fusing the crust punk grit of the California underground with the skull-splitting attack of old-school death and thrash. Their Lovecraftian namesake suits music this primordial — filthy, fast, and hostile, built on riffs that feel dredged from somewhere beneath the ocean floor.

Los Angeles grindcore band Terrorizer formed in 1986 around vocalist Oscar Garcia, guitarist Jesse Pintado, and drummer Pete Sandoval, recording their sole classic lineup album World Downfall in 1989 for Earache Records with Morbid Angel's David Vincent producing and playing bass. The album has since been recognized as a foundational text of grindcore, and the band briefly dissolved after Pintado joined Napalm Death and Sandoval returned to Morbid Angel. A reformed lineup released Darker Days Ahead in 2006, though the original lineup never reconvened.

Oakland's Thanatopsis carry a storied name — the 19th-century poem meditating on death — into a death/thrash sound that has evolved from progressive roots toward leaner, more aggressive territory since forming in 2020. The Bay Area's tradition of technically proficient thrash and death metal runs through their DNA, updated with the sharp-edged intensity of Oakland's current underground.

Oakland's Thane have been cultivating their death/doom sound since 2015, drawing on the Bay Area's tradition of heavy, serious metal and steering it into the slower, more oppressive corridors of the genre hybrid. Their music shares the grinding patience of classic death-doom — long songs, cavernous production, and a heaviness that accumulates with deliberate intent.