Via AdS/CFT correspondence, ground states of field theories at finite charge density are mapped to extremal black brane solutions. Analysis of simple gravity plus matter systems in this context give rise to new classes of extremal geometries. The hyperscaling violating Lifshitz metrics, hvLf, characterizing field theories with non-trivial dynamical exponents z and hyperscaling violation factor $theta$ emerge as one common endpoint of holographic toy models. In this talk, I will be reviewing the properties of such geometries, progress that has been made towards their taxonomy as extremal black brane horizons, and their embeddings in gauged supergravity and string theories.

Waterloo, Canada