Veteran San Diego outfit Unbroken have existed in the space between hardcore and metalcore since 1993, outlasting countless trends and scene shifts through sheer conviction. One of the longer-running acts in the American hardcore-adjacent underground, they bring decades of battle-hardened intensity.

Uphill Battle formed in Santa Barbara, California in 1999 under the name Crawlspace before adopting their final name, playing a style that drew from grindcore's velocity and metalcore's structural tension. Their two Relapse Records albums — a self-titled debut (2002) and Wreck of Nerves (2004) — were noted for combining the dissonance of Discordance Axis with hardcore intensity recalling early Converge. The band split in 2005 and undertook a brief reunion in 2010.