Los Angeles thrash metal project — distinct from the Swedish Arch Enemy — contributing to LA's thrash legacy. Another addition to a city that has produced generations of speed-obsessed metal.

Santa Cruz heavy metal revivalists flying the NWOTHM flag from California's coast, delivering classic twin-guitar harmonies and galloping riffs with the swagger of the genre's golden era.

San Diego thrash metal project with ten releases since 2020 — including one oddly dated 2037. Their prolific, chaotic output and titles like Freakee Friday suggest a band that doesn't take genre conventions too seriously while still delivering ferocious thrash.

Modesto, California deathcore project. The Gnostic-derived name — referencing the archons who imprison human souls in matter — adds philosophical weight to Central Valley aggression.

San Diego stoner metal act with a decade-spanning catalog from 2007 to 2017. Their full-length Lords of Light and Thunder lives up to its mythic title, delivering cosmic stoner jams from Southern California's sun-baked coast.

San Jose, California deathcore outfit whose 2020 debut Unto Leviathan invokes biblical sea monsters through crushing breakdowns. Bay Area brutality channeled through Old Testament imagery.

Los Angeles black metal project with seven releases since 2016. Named after the towering statues guarding the river Anduin in Tolkien's Middle-earth, their albums Dark Stories of the Sidhe and Journey to the Otherworld draw from Celtic mythology as much as Norse, building an extensive catalog of folk-inflected atmospheric black metal.

please update this band

West Covina progressive metal act delivering technical complexity from the San Gabriel Valley, adding to Southern California's surprising depth of progressive and djent-influenced bands.