Skeleton Hands is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania southern metal band formed in 2011, a somewhat unlikely geographic fit that speaks to the style's spread beyond the American South — they play heavy, groove-driven music with the downtrodden, whiskey-soaked attitude that defines the genre. Philadelphia's metal scene has always had room for stylistic outliers.

Slyphr is a Philadelphia-based groove and southern metal band formed in 2014, fusing the heavy mid-tempo churn of groove metal with southern rock sensibilities reminiscent of Pantera and Down.

Scranton, Pennsylvania's The Hill You Die On blend the slow, suffocating weight of doom metal with the gritty, road-worn character of Southern metal, creating something that feels both regionally displaced and geographically inevitable. Founded in 2017, they traffic in the kind of heavy that builds gradually and lands hard, with a working-class authenticity that suits their northeastern industrial roots. The name alone signals their philosophy: deliberate, committed, and dug in.