Same here. GTAV, while I liked it, was a minor disappointment for me and I burned out on it. Plus after seeing how GTA Online went and how greedy they got with it, I'm just not interested in Take Two/Rockstar games anymore.
Yeah it's a shame the official multiplayer didn't last long. There's some fan projects with that but none of them scratched the same itch for me.
There were a few patches for the game and they're still available, but the difficulty spikes are still there, it gets grindy in the last couple sections of the game.
Acrylic and BWNN both have the same lead singer (Jeff Gutt) as Dry Cell, but don't have Judd Gruenbaum (bassist/co-singer) in them.
You're welcome, I hope you enjoy what you hear!
I would say Dry Cell, who had a fantastic full album and lots of great demo EPs, and by extension their split-off bands, such as Acrylic and Band With No Name.
I'm just waiting for my sweet neighborhood reaper to take me home at this point.