Helsott bring pagan and folk metal traditions to the American Southwest from their base in Menifee, California, fusing Old Norse mythology with thrash and death metal aggression since 2010. Their name, Old Norse for 'fatal illness,' reflects the band's commitment to combining ancient pagan themes with distinctly American metal sensibilities. The result is a unique take on folk metal that pays homage to European traditions while keeping its boots firmly planted in American thrash.

California's Henry Metal is a solo heavy metal project launched in 2017 that leans into earnest, guitar-forward songwriting with a classicist sensibility. Unpretentious and unabashedly rooted in the riff.

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.

Named after their Inland Empire hometown, Hesperia (CA) have been trafficking in death metal since 2018 with a directness that reflects the working-class sprawl of their surroundings. Unadorned brutality from a corner of California metal that rarely gets the attention it deserves.

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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.

A recent arrival from Santa Rosa, California, Hexen House entered the black metal underground in 2024 with the urgency of a band that has been waiting too long to start. Raw and immediate, their early work sounds less like a debut than a declaration.

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.

Oakland's High on Fire are one of the defining forces in American doom and sludge, built on Matt Pike's mythological vision and the kind of riff density that makes everything around it feel thin. Since reforming their presence in the early 2010s, they have remained one of the heaviest and most uncompromising bands on earth.