An Oakland, California death metal band formed in 2022, whose name sets the tone perfectly — this is fetid, deliberately unclean death metal in the tradition of the Bay Area's more grotesque underground. The filth is the point, and they lean into it with enthusiasm.

Brooklyn's Wretched Tsar have been dragging sludge and stoner metal through New York's underground since 2016, combining the slow, crushing weight of sludge with the hazy, amplifier-worship side of stoner metal. The result is heavy in both mass and atmosphere, made for dark rooms and loud speakers.

Omaha, Nebraska's Wretchgod emerged in 2022 fusing black and death metal into a hybrid that carries the bleak hostility of both genres without settling cleanly into either. Their presence in Nebraska's comparatively sparse extreme metal scene makes them a notable outlier, channeling the isolation of the Great Plains into punishing noise.

Stoner and groove metal band from Oldenburg/Ostfriesland, Germany formed in 2019. Write Zero lays down heavy, groove-laden riffs anchored in the stoner metal tradition from the flat coastlands of northwestern Germany.

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Milwaukee's Writhen have been operating in the groove and death metal crossover since 2014, pairing the rhythmic churn of groove metal with the aggression of death metal in a way that keeps the music visceral without losing momentum. They're a staple of the Wisconsin metal underground.

Heavy metal band from Braunschweig, Germany emerging in 2024. Writhen Hilt forges traditional heavy metal from the historic city of Lower Saxony, drawing on the genre's classic European lineage.

A death metal band from Birmingham, Alabama, formed in 2020, Writhing Shadows traffic in the genre's more atmospheric strains — dense, mid-paced, and built on riffs that linger rather than bludgeon. Their Southern roots add a certain heaviness to the music that feels earned rather than affected.