San Diego's HellFynder fuses the reckless velocity of black/thrash metal into an unrelenting attack since 2020, taking equal inspiration from the second wave and the first-wave speed merchants. They are lean, aggressive, and direct — genre devotees with fangs intact.

San Francisco's Herpes lean into D-beat and goregrind with the kind of self-aware punk nihilism that the Bay Area's underground has always nurtured since their 2010 formation. The name tells you everything about their attitude toward conventional good taste.

Los Angeles' Hexen bring melodic sophistication and progressive ambition to the thrash template, threading complex arrangements through otherwise hard-hitting material. Their approach reflects the technical tradition of the LA metal scene while reaching toward something more compositionally adventurous.

San Francisco Bay Area act Hexx formed in 1983 under the name Paradox before settling on their current name and releasing the debut No Escape on Mike Varney's Shrapnel Records in 1984, establishing themselves in the nascent US power metal scene. Their sound evolved through the speed and thrash influences of the Bay Area through the late 1980s, culminating in the Century Media-released Morbid Reality (1992), their most technically demanding record. After a long dormancy following that album, founding members reformed the band in 2013 and released Wrath of the Reaper through High Roller Records in 2017.

Santa Cruz, California's Hunger have been serving up groove-driven thrash with a coastal menace since 2020, built on mid-paced pocket grooves and riff momentum that pulls like an undertow. Thrash by way of the Pacific.

Los Angeles heavy metal band Huntress formed around 2007 when vocalist Jill Janus, a trained opera singer with a four-octave range, connected with a local underground metal outfit and built the group into a touring act signed to Napalm Records in 2011. The band released three albums — Spell Eater (2012), Starbound Beast (2013), and Static (2015) — before dissolving, their sound rooted in classic heavy metal with thrash and doom influences. Janus's death in August 2018 marked the definitive end of the project, though the band's records remain a significant document of the early 2010s traditional metal revival.