Lewisburg, West Virginia's Plaguewielder evolved from raw black metal into a blacker, more feral black/thrash hybrid — a fitting sound for a band forged in the isolated mountains of Appalachia.

Frigid Black Metal / Ambient from San Antonio.

Gnostic-themed duo of Ryan Wilson (The Howling Void, Intestinal Disgorge) and drummer Shane Elwell. Released on Nuclear War Now! and Everlasting Spew Records.

Poison Blood is a black metal project formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 2017, a collaboration between Jenks Miller (Horseback) and Neill Jameson (Krieg), developed remotely without the two musicians ever having met in person. Their self-titled debut EP (2017) drew explicit inspiration from Beherit's Drawing Down the Moon, channeling raw early black metal through textures that also incorporated deathrock, dungeon synth, and occult imagery. The project represents a concise but pointed statement from two of American underground black metal's more distinctive voices.

Denver's Poisonous Wind emerged from the Colorado Rockies in 2020 with a black metal aesthetic shaped by isolation and altitude, channeling the raw, misanthropic tradition of Scandinavian second-wave black metal through a distinctly American lens. Cold, atmospheric, and unrelenting, their sound carries the chill of high plains winters.

Phoenix's Poleis entered the black metal underground in 2023, bringing a harsh and ascetic approach to a city better known for sun and sprawl than for cold, dark metal. The name — evoking ancient Greek city-states — suggests a project as much concerned with ideas as with raw sonic assault, and their black metal reflects that austere ambition.

Orlando's Pontifex conjures symphonic death-black metal with the ceremonial gravity their name demands — the marriage of orchestral sweep, death metal ferocity, and black metal atmosphere creates something that feels genuinely liturgical. Active since 2023, they're part of Florida's long tradition of extreme metal that aims for grandeur without sacrificing savagery.

Austin blackened screamo/hardcore. Vicious, genre-blending intensity that defies easy categorization.

Post Heaven arrived in 2023 with melodic black-death metal that sits in the liminal space between anguish and beauty — the kind of sound that surfaces when black metal's atmosphere meets death metal's brute propulsion with melody threading through both. Without a fixed city on the map, the music itself becomes the location.