San Diego's DitchWitch have been dealing in raw black metal and noise since 2018, embracing the lo-fi, corrosive aesthetic that puts atmosphere and hostility above production clarity. In a city known for its more polished metal output, DitchWitch carve out a genuinely abrasive corner — primitive, unrelenting, and indifferent to comfort.

A Berkeley, California project active since 2013, Dunnock operates in the harshest margins of raw black metal and noise, crafting lo-fi, abrasive recordings that prioritize atmosphere and primitive menace over production polish.

San Diego's Erusopxecinomeddetaeperhguorhtserisednamuhllafonoitacidarecitametsys — whose name is itself an act of defiance against legibility — practices raw black metal in the most confrontational and uncompromising sense, rejecting accessibility at every level from naming to production to ideology. Formed in 2023, the project treats obscurantism as a principled stance.

San Jose's Goatcorpse practice raw black metal in the most literal sense — coarse recordings, stripped-down malice, and an utter disdain for production value. Since 2018, they've kept the genre's ugliest instincts fully intact.

Born in Los Angeles in 2020, Hohlgeist fuses raw black metal with shoegaze, wrapping tremolo-drenched noise in hazy, atmospheric drift. The result is something hollow and haunted, as if the void itself has a texture.

Los Angeles raw black metal act Kavaldra strip the genre back to its most caustic, unpolished essentials, harnessing deliberate lo-fi abrasion and atmosphere in equal measure since 2020.

Speed metal delivered at maximum velocity with a thrash backbone, Los Angeles' Last Rites have been tearing up the West Coast scene since 2002.

Los Angeles-based Me Igi traffics in raw black metal stripped down to its most abrasive essentials, formed in 2021 against the grain of the city's sunlit reputation. Their material is lo-fi and confrontational, drawing from the primitive necro tradition while filtering it through a Southern California isolation.

Moonlantern is a San Diego raw black metal and dungeon synth project formed in 2018, occupying the atmospheric, lo-fi end of the underground where raw black metal and ambient synth work share the same physical and spiritual space. The dungeon synth dimension sets them apart from pure raw black metal acts, suggesting a project as interested in solitary introspection as in harsh noise.