Punishing Brutal Death Metal from Eagle Lake.

Austin noise rock pioneers. David Yow and David Wm. Sims went on to form The Jesus Lizard.

Houston's Screamer have been flying the flag for traditional heavy metal since 2011, drawing from the same well as the NWOBHM pioneers and early American metal acts who turned amplification into something anthemic and defiant. Their songs lead with guitar melodies that have actual hooks — memorable, fist-raising moments built for stages in sweaty clubs — delivered with a vocalist whose range tips the cap to the genre's golden era. Houston's metal underground is vast and varied, and Screamer represent its most classically inclined corner.

Anthemic traditional heavy metal with a historical bent. Signed to Germany's Golden Core/ZYX Records. Have shared stages with Saxon, Voivod, Manilla Road, and Hammerfall.

Savage Brutal Death Metal from League City.

Ferocious Thrash Metal / Crossover from Dallas (early)/Austin (later).

Waco, Texas black metal project Seiobo takes its name from a figure in East Asian mythology and channels that sense of the otherworldly into Texas's growing underground black metal scene since 2023. Operating out of a city not typically associated with the genre, Seiobo represents the kind of geographically unexpected but sonically committed black metal that keeps the genre's underground alive and unpredictable.

Hailing from the rural plains of Farmersville, Texas, Selchidh has been crafting immersive atmospheric black metal since 2015, weaving vast, desolate soundscapes that feel native to the wide open skies of North Texas. Their music favors expansive, textured compositions that trade speed for mood, layering tremolo-driven riffs beneath cold, windswept ambience. They remain one of the quieter but more distinctive voices in the American atmospheric black metal underground.

Furious Crossover / Thrash Metal from Houston.