Hell yeah, good metal bands come from AZ, like Eyes Set To Kill and Job For A Cowboy. I wanna go to Warped Tour mostly for Yelawolf, Eyes Set To Kill, Dr. Acula, Attack Attack!, The Devil Wears Prada, August Burns Red, and A Day To Remember, as unmetal as the last one sounds XD
Damn then I hope I run into these friends of yours some time, haha. Right now I'm mainly focusing on writing riffs to a couple sets of lyrics (I've got like, 5 sets of lyrics written, only been workin' on 2.), and after I can get those all written out and get a recording program, I'm gonna send my mp3 files to fellow guitarists to see if they wanna jam and start a band.