Sweeping and desolate, Oaken Palace craft atmospheric black metal that conjures the grey skies and frozen stillness of the upper Midwest. Their sound trades brutality for texture — cavernous, layered, and haunted by a deep sense of place.

El Paso black/thrash veterans active since 1992. Named after the Bathory track. Prolific catalog of war-themed filth spanning three decades.

San Diego's Obsidian Rite began in doom before gravitating toward black metal's harsher cold, and the tension between those two impulses gives their music its distinctive, brooding character. Formed in 2023, they're already building something that feels genuinely ominous.

Ruthless Melodic Death Metal from Fort Worth.

Chicago's Obskurum carve out black metal that feels at home in an urban landscape — cold, isolating, and relentless, shaped by the Midwest's grey winters and underground metal culture. Formed in 2020, they bring a rawness to the Windy City's extreme scene that refuses to be polished away.

California's Occult Mountain traffic in raw black metal and dungeon synth with the lo-fi intensity of a project that has nothing to prove to anyone. Born in 2025, their sound is primitive, isolated, and entirely committed to the underground's most uncompromising traditions.

Raw Symphonic Black Metal from Austin.

Thunderous Blackened Sludge Metal from Dallas/Denton, Texas / New York, New York.

A deliberately obscure American black metal outfit, Old Cave operate in the shadows with a rawness that feels genuinely ancient rather than performative. Since 2009, their music has suggested isolation and intent in equal measure.