Pittsburgh's Plague Witch arrived in 2020 with a melodic black/death metal sound that balances scorching ferocity with sharp, memorable songcraft — dark and relentless without sacrificing hooks.

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.

A Petaluma, California project that has been carving melodic black/death metal with a stark, Northern California grimness since 2017, Potter (the solo work of Nolan Potter) weaves icy tremolo lines with death metal's brutish low end to create something that feels both ornate and ferocious. The melodic sensibility never softens the edges — if anything, it sharpens the contrast between beauty and violence. Potter occupies a particular corner of American black metal where craft matters as much as atmosphere.