Los Angeles' Slog combine the bleakness of death-doom with black metal's icy atmosphere and death metal's brutality since their 2021 formation, creating music that crawls through the darkest possible sonic spaces. Their multi-genre approach reflects LA's ability to generate extreme metal that refuses easy categorization.

Slytherin is a Los Angeles atmospheric black metal project formed in 2020, weaving dense, cold-blooded tremolo riffs and reverb-drenched ambiance into sweeping, darkly cinematic compositions.

Smoke Dweller is an atmospheric black metal and ambient project from San Luis Obispo, California, formed in 2017, fusing raw black metal textures with expansive ambient passages to create deeply immersive and desolate soundscapes.

Smolder Glow is a blackened death metal band from Santa Rosa, California, formed in 2020, fusing the blast-beat ferocity and tremolo aggression of black metal with the blunt, guttural weight of death metal.

Solitary Key is a black metal project from Santa Barbara, California, formed in 2018, crafting introspective and atmospheric black metal from the central California coast.

Solitary Suffering is a blackened death metal project from Chico, California, formed in 2023, fusing the ferocity of death metal with black metal's cold dissonance and nihilistic atmosphere.

Solitary Vice is a black metal project from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2021, contributing to the sprawling Southern California black metal underground with a sound steeped in the genre's raw and atmospheric currents.

Solus are a Los Angeles post-black metal project active since 2007, weaving atmospheric and introspective textures into a black metal foundation in the manner characteristic of the city's eclectic extreme metal underground.

Soma Ras are a Sacramento, California band formed in 2012 who fuse blackened death metal with deathcore elements, combining blast-beat intensity and guttural heaviness with the breakdowns and structural extremity associated with modern heavy music.