Orange County black/thrash outfit Darkult have been fusing the violence of first-wave black metal with thrash metal's motorized aggression since 2015, keeping the cult underground tradition burning with raw ferocity.

Los Angeles-based Dawn of Ashes have spent over a decade fusing industrial electronics with melodic black metal, crafting a sound as cold and synthetic as it is primal. Their EBM roots push the project into genuinely unnerving territory where machines and darkness share equal billing.

Oakland's Dawn of Ouroboros pursue progressive post-black metal with an open-ended curiosity that sets them apart from their Bay Area peers. Since 2019, they've built a sound of cyclical intensity — introspective, dissonant, and deeply textured, much like their serpent-devouring-itself namesake.

San Jose's Dawning merge progressive metal's structural ambition with the bleakness of black and doom metal, resulting in music that shifts between introspection and devastation. Active since 2022, the band approaches the Bay Area's heavy scene from an angle all their own.

California's Inland Empire spawned Dead Chaplain, who combine black metal's ritualistic darkness with the raw, abrasive energy of crust punk — a pairing that sounds as sun-scorched and hostile as the region itself. No melody wasted on comfort.

Citrus Heights, California's Dead Desolation arrived in 2024 with depressive raw black metal that strips the genre to its barest, most corroded essentials — lo-fi production, harrowing atmosphere, and zero concern for listenability.

Santa Cruz's Dead War weaponize blackened death and thrash into something relentlessly combative, pulling from the raw Pacific coast tradition of filth and speed. Since 2016, they've burned through every genre boundary their name implies.

San Francisco's Deafheaven reshaped what post-black metal could look and sound like, fusing shoegaze's emotional luminosity with black metal's destructive force across landmark records that divided and energized the genre in equal measure. Since 2010, they've remained one of the most discussed and imitated bands in modern heavy music.

Los Angeles's Death and the Lament treat experimental black/death metal as genuine sonic research, pushing the boundaries of both genres into uncharted and often unsettling territory since 2014. Their work rewards listeners willing to sit with discomfort.