Scarborough, Maine's Mordhau takes its name from the medieval half-swording technique and brings a similarly brutal directness to black metal since forming in 2020. The band channels the cold, isolated atmosphere of New England's winters into music that feels stark and unsparing.

One of the longer-running black metal acts in Southern California, Santa Ana's Mordor have maintained their dark vision since 1994 — an impressive run for the Los Angeles area underground. Their name, drawn from Tolkien's realm of shadow, anchors them in the mythological and fantastical tradition of early European black metal.

Memphis, Tennessee's Mordor have been active in the black metal underground since 1994, drawing on the city's deep history of dark music to craft something distinctly Southern in its bleakness. Their longevity places them among the elder statesmen of the American black metal underground.

Oakland's Morgana work in the post-black metal space, tempering the genre's harshness with expansive, emotionally resonant passages that reflect the Bay Area's experimental underground ethos since 2020. Their music moves between abrasion and melancholy with a fluidity that suits their Arthurian name's associations with mystery and transformation.

Maine's Morganian Rite emerged in 2022 as a black/death metal force anchored in ritualistic darkness and uncompromising extremity. The band's name evokes a sense of occult ceremony, and their music treats the intersection of black and death metal as a space for invoking something genuinely malevolent.

Old-school death metal in the vein of Asphyx and Celtic Frost. Members overlap with Hod, Plutonian Shore, and Trench Warfare.

Newtown, Pennsylvania's Morgh have been a black metal presence in the mid-Atlantic underground since 2012, operating with the kind of solitary intensity that characterizes the region's more isolated one-person or small-band projects. Their sound maintains the rawness and directional focus that defines serious black metal underground work.

Suffield, Connecticut's Morgirion have been a quiet but committed presence in the New England black metal underground since 2012, crafting music in the isolated tradition that the region's sparse and cold landscape seems to demand. Their longevity in the Connecticut underground speaks to a genuine dedication to the form.

Denver's Morgue Sermon blend black and death metal into a bleak and hostile hybrid, formed in 2024 with a sound that draws equally from the cold menace of black metal and the pulverizing weight of death metal.