Cerulean is a Tucson-area act blending black and death metal into a harsh, extreme sound that draws from both genres' most punishing tendencies. Their material combines blackened dissonance with death metal brutality.

Cessation is a San Diego, California funeral doom metal band crafting extraordinarily slow, grief-laden compositions built on crushing low-end riffs and bleak, suffocating atmosphere. Their work sits at the extreme end of the doom spectrum, prioritizing heaviness and despair over accessibility.

Cetacean is a Los Angeles, California doom and sludge metal band building massive, slow-moving compositions out of grinding riffs and oppressive low-end heaviness. Their sound evokes the oceanic enormity suggested by their name, blending Southern-inflected sludge with crushing doom.

Cetus is a Ventura, California band merging black and death metal extremity into a ferocious, uncompromising sound drawing on both genres' most aggressive elements. Their work captures the raw, underground energy of the California extreme metal scene.

Chaahk is a black metal band from Riverside, California, drawing thematic inspiration from Mesoamerican mythology — specifically the Maya rain and storm deity for whom they are named. Their sound channels raw aggression through a lens of ancient, pre-Columbian darkness.

Chain Wolf is a Los Angeles, California crossover thrash band fusing the breakneck speed and aggression of thrash metal with the hardcore punk energy of crossover. Their sound captures the raw, street-level intensity that defined the mid-1980s crossover movement.

Chained Existence is a death metal band from Fort Bragg, California, delivering brutal, riff-heavy material rooted in the American death metal underground. Their sound draws on the visceral aggression and punishing downtuned riffing central to the genre.

San Francisco, California act Chainsaw Zombie weave together black metal, death metal, and doom metal into a dark, mid-paced assault drawing from the Bay Area's extreme metal history. The death-doom elements slow their attack and add a sepulchral heaviness.

California raw black metal project Chalice of Eden operate in the lo-fi, primitive tradition of raw black metal, prioritizing atmosphere and nihilistic intensity over production polish. Their music is harsh and stripped down, indebted to the second-wave Scandinavian style.