Minneapolis black metal project Cherished Wounds explores grief and internal darkness through raw, atmospheric compositions. Their music reflects the desolate extremes of Minnesota winters rendered in tremolo and shadow.

Washington state's Chiasmus operates in the most uncompromising reaches of raw black metal, fusing its primitive savagery with death metal's heavier attack. The band strips the music down to its most corrosive, confrontational essence.

Phoenix's Children of Wrath layers orchestral symphonic arrangements over a base of black and death metal extremity, creating a grand and aggressive sound that aims for epic scope. The Arizona desert heat meets cold Northern European influences in their dense compositions.

Los Angeles's China Girl operates in a deliberately chaotic space, blending black metal, death metal, thrash, and experimental noise into something abrasive and unpredictable. Their willingness to disrupt genre convention makes them a singular presence in the LA underground.

California black metal act Chloe Dancer takes its name from a landmark Mother Love Bone song and channels that reverence for dark romanticism into cold, atmospheric black metal compositions. Their work sits on the more contemplative, melancholic end of the spectrum.

Chloranthy brings a frostbitten approach to black metal, built around cold, dissonant riffs and bleak atmosphere inspired as much by the genre's Scandinavian roots as by American underground aesthetics. Their work is dense and uncompromising, favoring texture over melody.

Mechanicsville, Virginia's Chogori, named after the world's second-highest peak, channels that sense of brutal, inhuman scale into raw and atmospheric black metal. Their music aims for the kind of vast, crushing desolation the K2 summit evokes.

Dayton's Choking drag black metal orthodoxy through the Ohio rust belt, smearing it with thick sludge and corrosive atmosphere. The result is bleak, slow-burning, and confrontational.

Milwaukee's Cholernik fuse black metal darkness with progressive ambition, building elaborate compositions that shift between cold atmosphere and technical complexity. A forward-thinking act from the Wisconsin underground.