Hailing from Fremont, California, Northrose has been weaving atmospheric and post-black metal since 2014, blending corrosive tremolo passages with expansive, ambient textures that evoke the fog-draped Bay Area coastline. Their sound sits at the intersection of raw black metal fury and introspective post-rock drift, building landscapes that feel simultaneously suffocating and transcendent.

San Diego's Noxious Anathema have been refining their black/death metal attack since 2014, merging the scorched-earth atmosphere of black metal with death metal's rhythmic crush into something that feels genuinely nasty. Southern California is not always the first region associated with this kind of underground extremity, which makes their persistent commitment to the uglier end of the spectrum all the more notable.