Panama City, Florida's The Killing Toke have been building their sprawling black/death/doom hybrid since 2013, drawing from across the extreme metal spectrum without ever sounding scattered. Their name gestures toward the psychedelic, and indeed there's a haze running through their music that softens the brutality just enough to add disorientation to the dread. They're a singular entry in the Florida panhandle underground — a region better known for beach towns than for extreme metal.

The Occult Project emerged from Maryland in 2019 as a vehicle for corrosive black/death metal that leans into atmosphere as much as aggression. The project fuses the raw hostility of death metal with black metal's spectral menace, arriving at something deliberately unsettling.

Baltimore's The Old Evil arrived in 2022 steeped in pure black metal orthodoxy, drawing on the tradition of cold, misanthropic atmosphere that the genre was built on. Still a young act, they've positioned themselves within a city with deep underground roots and a serious commitment to keeping the form ugly and uncompromising.

New York black metal duo formed in 2016 by Frank Fisicaro and Sean Gabler, who named the project after Peter Cushing's ominous character in the 1974 Amicus horror anthology From Beyond the Grave. Their debut full-length For Nothing is my Own draws on atmospheric and traditional black metal while keeping one foot in the horror-obsessed cultural tradition that has long defined the genre's American underground.

Seattle atmospheric black metal band formed in 2024, drawing on the region's deep roots in ambient and post-metal to craft expansive, texture-driven black metal that prioritizes atmosphere over pure aggression. One of the newer additions to a Pacific Northwest underground long hospitable to the atmospheric end of the black metal spectrum.

Eugene, Oregon atmospheric black metal act founded in 2015, crafting expansive, wind-swept compositions that carry the Pacific Northwest's natural bleakness into the genre's most ambient corners. Their decade-long run places them among the more established practitioners of atmospheric black metal in the Oregon underground.

Raleigh, North Carolina black metal project active since 2016, dealing in raw and uncompromising underground black metal that values atmosphere and menace over production polish. Their decade of activity has placed them firmly within the Southeast's growing underground black metal community.

Portland blackened sludge and doom metal outfit formed in 2014, fusing the corrosive atmosphere of black metal with the slow, crushing heaviness of sludge and doom in a combination that the Pacific Northwest underground has proven particularly fertile ground for cultivating. Their sound is dense, dissonant, and deliberately oppressive.

New Mexico's The Stone Ground are a solo atmospheric black metal project that layers cascading tremolo and ambient texture into expansive, landscape-evoking compositions since 2014. The project reflects the austere, wide-open character of the Southwest, filtered through black metal's introspective and raw-production tradition.

Portland's The Sun Came Up upon the Left have been operating at the intersection of black and death metal since 2008, melding blackened atmosphere with death metal's physical weight in a city that has long fostered unusual and boundary-pushing heavy music. The literary quality of their name suggests a project with a strong aesthetic identity beyond pure aggression.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania's The Synics Awakening have evolved significantly since their 2015 formation, shifting from symphonic black metal's orchestral grandeur toward a harder-edged death and thrash metal sound over time. The band's battleground hometown seems fitting for a project built on sonic conflict and transformation.

Orlando's The Tome traffic in black/death metal with an occult sensibility, weaving blasphemous atmosphere into caustic riffwork since 2018. Their releases operate under the Bandcamp handle onelandoneking, hinting at a singular, totalizing vision within the extreme metal underground.

A New York black/death metal project formed in 2018, The True Goat channels raw, ritualistic aggression with an underground ethos that favors darkness over accessibility. Their approach leans into the primitive, confrontational side of extreme metal with little concession to polish.

Chicago's The Unshored weave black metal harshness, doom metal weight, and progressive metal architecture into a cohesive whole since forming in 2015. Their sound is searching and bleak, trading in long-form compositions that move through icy bleakness and crushing low-end in equal measure.

Detroit's The Watchers merge the corrosive weight of sludge with windswept atmospheric black metal, building bleak, layered soundscapes that reflect the industrial grimness of their city — a project that has been refining this collision of extremes since 2016.