Punishing Melodic Black / Death Metal from Lubbock.

Systol is a death metal band from Corpus Christi, Texas, formed in 2016, delivering blunt, stripped-back death metal from the Gulf Coast metal underground.

Frigid Black Metal from Texas/Minnesota.

Out of Lubbock, Texas, Terror Chamber have been dealing in stripped-down death metal since 2017 — a band born from the West Texas plains where there is nothing soft or decorative in the landscape, and nothing soft or decorative in the music. Their approach is direct and relentless, the kind of death metal that dispenses with subtlety and goes straight for the throat.

Devastating Death Metal / Grindcore from Houston.

Devastating Brutal Death Metal from Dallas.

Dallas' The Argonaut have been charting their own course through avant-garde progressive death metal since 2007, building music that sprawls and coils with the relentless ambition their name implies — searching, dissonant, and structurally bold in ways that distinguish them from the more straightforward corners of the Texas metal underground. Their sound treats the death metal template as a starting point rather than a destination.

Out of Friendswood, Texas, The Crypt Alive have been working the fertile intersection of melodic death metal and metalcore since 2012, anchoring Scandinavian melodic influence to the punishing energy of American metalcore. Their Houston-area roots give the music a particular intensity — a region that has long pushed its heavy bands to go harder and mean it.

Crushing Death Metal / Metalcore from New York, New York / Dallas/Fort Worth.