San Diego thrash band exploding with speed metal fury from Southern California, delivering high-octane aggression from America's Finest City.

Los Angeles groove/progressive metal act blending technical complexity with heavy rhythmic drive, reflecting L.A.'s position as a melting pot for every conceivable metal subgenre.

Oakland death metal legends and architects of the death-doom subgenre. Their Bandcamp catalog includes Dead as..., representing one chapter of a career that fundamentally shaped extreme music worldwide. Chris Reifert and company created the template for merging death metal's fury with doom's crushing pace.

San Diego black/death metal act blending seasonal melancholy with extreme metal aggression, contributing to Southern California's diverse underground with atmospheric intensity.

Power metal act that moved from Storrs, Connecticut to Los Angeles, living up to their forward-thinking name by pushing the boundaries of traditional power metal convention.

Los Angeles progressive power metal project whose 2013 self-titled EP lives up to the punning name — forward-thinking metal that guards the avant-garde tradition. Cerebral heaviness from the entertainment capital.

Salinas, California black metal project whose 2016 debut The Burning Chariots in the Skies channels biblical warfare imagery through atmospheric extremity from the agricultural heartland of the Central Coast.

Avenged Sevenfold formed in Huntington Beach in 1999 and became one of the most successful American metal bands of the 21st century by refusing to stay in one lane. Sounding the Seventh Trumpet and Waking the Fallen placed the band in metalcore, with screamed vocals, fast riffs, and dramatic song structures. City of Evil transformed them into a twin-guitar heavy-metal force, while Avenged Sevenfold, Nightmare, and Hail to the King pushed arena hooks, hard rock, and classic-metal influence to the front. The Stage and Life Is But a Dream... later expanded the band's progressive and experimental side, proving that their ambitions reached beyond radio metal. Avenged Sevenfold fit metal scope directly through their riffs, solos, breakdown origins, and major role in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Their catalog is held together by M. Shadows' theatrical vocals, Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance's guitar chemistry, and a taste for excess that can be melodic, technical, macabre, or absurd. At their best, A7X make modern metal feel grand, restless, and defiantly personal.