Los Angeles's Shrapnel, formed in 2021, deliver heavy and thrash metal shaped by the city's sprawling extreme metal community, prioritizing riff density and forward momentum in a style that echoes the early-80s heavy thrash underground.

San Diego's Shrieking, formed in 2025, operate in the atmospheric and depressive wing of black metal, crafting bleak, suffocating soundscapes that lean into introspection and emotional desolation over aggression.

Palm Springs, California's Shrine of Resurrection, formed in 2021, pursue progressive death metal filtered through metalcore's structural sensibility — ambitious compositions that balance technical complexity with the direct aggression of the modern heavy underground.

San Francisco's Shrinebuilder are a supergroup formed in 2009 from members of Sleep, Neurosis, The Melvins, and Scott Kelly's solo projects, combining stoner and doom metal traditions into monolithic, lysergic compositions that draw from the full weight of their members' combined legacies.

Thrash metal outfit hailing from Placerville, California, keeping the Bay Area tradition alive with driving riffs and aggressive, no-frills attack since 2011.

San Luis Obispo thrash outfit formed in 2020, channeling the raw intensity and social cynicism of classic thrash into a tight, relentless sound on the Central Coast.

Los Angeles death metal act with a history stretching back to 2002, operating in a city with a dense extreme metal underground and bringing L.A.'s hard-edged darkness to the genre.

Bay Area death metal outfit active since 2004, forged in the same Northern California scene that gave birth to thrash and carrying on its legacy with brutal, technically informed aggression.

Ontario, California death metal band formed in 2018, bringing Inland Empire grit to the genre with a blunt, punishing approach rooted in the classic death metal tradition.