San Jose's Cult Graves traffick in barbaric black/death metal that draws equally from old Deicide's surgical brutality and Proclamation's war-metal chaos. Formed in 2018 and signed to Transylvanian Recordings, their 2020 full-length Strange Customs established them as one of the Bay Area underground's most uncompromising voices.

Formed in Chicago in 1999 by C. Immortum and W. Obscurum, Cult of Daath conjure a primal, misanthropic black metal rooted in the raw primitivism of Hellhammer, early Beherit, and old Mayhem. Their catalog, released through Nuclear War Now! Productions, is a stripped-down devotion to first-wave ferocity and ritual nihilism.

Long Island husband-and-wife duo Cult of Herodias craft deeply immersive funeral doom anchored by Kristina Rocco's sweeping classical vocals and suffocating, slow-motion arrangements. Active since 2012, the Holbrook outfit fuses experimental doom with a liturgical atmosphere that makes each release feel like a prolonged, mournful ceremony.

Chattanooga's Cult of Judas smear industrial grime over a foundation of lurching sludge metal, wringing out a sound that is as mechanically hostile as it is heavy. Their 2016 release Evolutionary Level Above Human showcases a band willing to push the genre into deliberately unsettling, post-industrial territory.

Baltimore's Cult of Leviathan blend progressive ambition into a death/doom core, sprawling across tempos and textures without losing the suffocating weight that defines the genre. The Maryland band operates as an independent act, favoring labyrinthine song structures that reward patient listeners.

Galesburg, Illinois's Cult of Mutants collapse death metal, grindcore, sludge, and experimental noise into a deliberately deformed mass with little regard for genre tidiness. The result is exactly what the name suggests — a mutated, grotesque thing that thrives in the margins of extreme music.

Kansas City's Cult of Orion occupy the crushing space where death metal, doom, and sludge converge, leaning into slow, monstrous riffs weighted with dread. The Missouri band works in the tradition of death/doom that prizes atmosphere and oppressive heaviness over technical display.

Cincinnati's Cult of Sorrow take early heavy metal's most primal impulses and run them through a lens of occult doom, drawing on traditional witchcraft imagery while keeping the riffs massive and the atmosphere brooding. Their 2019 album Invocation of the Lucifer is their most complete statement, framing the horned god as a force of nature rather than a figure of evil.

Spokane's Cult of Suffering channel Pacific Northwest extremity through melodic black metal structures, coupling relentless blasting with guitar work that carries genuine melodic intent. Formed in 2023, the band's debut LP By Their Fruits arrived in 2025 and addresses religious deconstruction through frost-bitten, PNW-rooted metal.