Santa Clarita's Pain Catalyst fuse groove-heavy riffs with thrash velocity, arriving at a punishing sound rooted in the heavier side of California metal. Formed in 2022, they channel mechanical precision and physical aggression into tightly wound songs.

Profits of Doom out of Sebastopol, California grind groove and thrash metal together into a sound that's equal parts neck-snapping rhythm and full-throttle intensity. Founded in 2018, the band leans hard into the mid-paced, syncopated heaviness that defines modern groove metal while injecting enough thrash velocity to keep things volatile. Their northern California origins lend them a certain independent, no-frills spirit that comes through in their muscular, no-nonsense material.

Oakland's Project Mayhem AD are a freshly minted groove metal outfit, having formed in 2024 in one of the Bay Area's historically fertile underground scenes. Their sound plants itself firmly in the heavy, riff-driven groove tradition, leaning on the kinetic, physical impact that the style delivers at its best. As a new band in a city with a long and serious metal pedigree, they enter the scene with plenty to prove and a readymade audience of hungry ears.