Hopewell Junction, New York's Vision Serpent fuses death metal's downtuned aggression with groove metal's lockstep rhythmic swagger, arriving at a sound that is heavy in the most physical sense. Formed in 2023, they lean into the tension between brutality and headbang-inducing mid-tempo momentum, making their music as much about movement as darkness.

Formed in Buffalo in 2020, Vomit Hounds drag black and death metal through the industrial grit of upstate New York's underbelly. They strike at the intersection where cold, atmospheric black metal hostility collides with death metal's obsession with rot — a combination that suits Buffalo's long winters and grimmer instincts perfectly.

Formed in 2020 in Guilderland, New York, Vortex play heavy metal grounded in the hard-driving traditions of thrash with a no-frills, riff-first approach. The band leans into the kinetic energy of classic thrash while keeping the songwriting anchored in heavy metal's melodic instincts. Short on pretension and long on velocity, they represent the continuing vitality of the upstate New York metal underground.

Binghamton, New York death metal act operating under the Swedish word for "apparition" or "ghost," a name that hints at a sound influenced by the spectral, rotten-sounding Swedish death metal tradition. Active since 2012, they've quietly maintained a presence in the upstate New York underground.