Baywood-Los Osos is a foggy coastal community on California's central coast, and Murk Rider's black metal reflects that remote, mist-shrouded geography — cold, isolationist, and atmospheric without falling into post-black sentimentality. Active since 2019, this solo or small-ensemble project captures the bleakness of the Pacific coastline.

East Hampton, Connecticut's Murked arrived in 2023 with an atmospheric black metal approach that draws on New England's grey skies and dense forests for its oppressive, enveloping sound. The project inhabits the more expansive, textural wing of black metal, favoring mood over pure aggression.

Phoenix groove metal act Murkocet bring the desert's brutality to bear on heavy, mid-paced riff-craft since 2018, the band name itself a sardonic pharmaceutical portmanteau that hints at a dark wit beneath the heaviness. Arizona's extreme heat finds a natural analog in groove metal's punishing physicality.

Little Rock, Arkansas black metal act Murkryth have been conjuring cold, misanthropic atmospheres since 2019, operating in the raw, orthodox end of the genre with minimal concern for accessibility. Arkansas black metal is a small but stubbornly surviving scene, and Murkryth are one of its more committed participants.

Emerging from La Cienega, New Mexico in 2023, Murkurselv play depressive black metal with the high-desert isolation of northern New Mexico running through every note — sparse, grief-saturated, and shaped by a landscape that feels removed from the rest of the world. The name itself has a Nordic quality that signals familiarity with DSBM's Scandinavian roots.

Chicago's Murmur occupy the experimental and progressive wing of black metal, bending the genre's orthodoxies outward into unexpected structural and tonal territory since 2021. Operating with an exploratory ethos, they blend progressive complexity with black metal's dark foundation in a way that resists easy genre reduction.

Named after the silent film director F.W. Murnau, this Morrison, Illinois outfit blends progressive ambition with the crushing weight of doom metal, crafting slow-burning compositions that reward patient listeners. Active since 2008, they occupy a thoughtful corner of the Midwest underground where atmosphere and dynamics take precedence over brute force.

Out of Norwich, Connecticut, Murrum has been delivering raw, atmospheric black metal since 2013 with a sound rooted in the genre's second-wave coldness. Their work leans into dissonance and primitive intensity, fitting squarely within the underground New England black metal scene.

Portland, Oregon's Mursa channels the city's deep well of heavy music into caustic sludge metal built on slow, punishing riffs and abrasive texture. Active since 2013, the band embodies the grimy, feedback-laden aesthetic that defines the Pacific Northwest's harder underground.