Almost three years ago I wrote a piece about what I considered to be the “New Wave of American Darkness,” which outlined a thesis that we were hitting a sort of renaissance for American black metal. This, of course, opened my inbox to a deluge of people’s significant others or friends firing off friend requests and messages telling me to check out bands they were sure I’d somehow forgotten to mention, unfriending me the moment the dim bulb in their head registered that I wasn’t going to edit my piece to include whatever they dropped in. While this behavior, especially when I’m the target, gives me a tightening in my bowels, it does, at minimal, say a lot about the health of a scene. I guess.
During the press cycle of Krieg’s last record I was asked a lot about American black metal (USBM henceforth) and how I would describe it, especially by Europeans. Unfortunately, instead of thinking about a long lineage of interesting, driven artists, I found that I would have to add my voice to the overwhelming cacophony surrounding American subcultural conversation being entirely driven by politics and identity, becoming a sort of bastardized (and exhausting) TED Talk instead of a conversation regarding music. I suppose that it was always destined to become this, as any subculture can attest (punk especially) and, being the self important asshole I am, I tend to like to hear myself talk. But it brings the question of “what about the bands, the music?” to mind. And no, I’m definitely not a proprietor of “it’s the riffs maaaan” or other such vapid platitudes. But the music has to mean something outside of being a vehicle to discuss identity, politics and slogans, right?
So, during what I guess is the most patriotic week of the year, I wanted to revisit my original idea and take a look at the American underground, to see where we’re at.
It speaks volumes that two of the oldest American black metal bands, Demoncy and Profanatica, released excellent records in 2023, continuing both projects’ longstanding legacy of savage and vital USBM. I bring both of them up, not only because of the excellence they have (and continue) to release, but as prime examples of American black metal’s depth of spirit as led by two longstanding iconoclasts (Paul Ledney for Profanatica/Havohej, Ixithra for Demoncy) neither of which has shied away from experimentation or forging their own paths regardless of how it may be perceived from the outside. So what of the next wave?
New England has always been a special kind of breeding ground for underground music, be it punk, noise, grind etc. Black metal is honestly no different, and when this rock is overturned you will find plenty of interesting projects continuing to push forward. Solar Cross is probably my favorite of the batch, performing a raw yet triumphant style of black metal, driven by memory of black metal past. Similar in scope is Black Sorcery, a Rhode Island based band that captures the essence of black metal before we could take pictures of people wearing corpse paint to gigs they weren’t playing and pop them on Instagram for worldwide giggles.
Plummeting into the Hour of the Wolf by Black Sorcery But New England isn’t just producing exceptional traditional black metal: there is also a vibrant and nasty melding of noise, punk and black metal happening in projects like Sandworm and relative newcomers Prayer Position, who are creating some of the harshest expressions in the genre.
Prayer Position by Prayer Position Labels like Stygian Black Hand are continuing the good fight, giving support to worthy projects like Stress Angel (whose new album, Punished by Nemesis, is a masterclass in the spirit of old American black metal).
Punished by Nemesis by Stress Angel
Across the country American labels are pushing through the front lines, ignoring the cultural noise around them, and giving much needed support to underground bands. And while a lot of this becomes Discogs showpieces for Instagram collectors who never actually listen to their fucking records, enough still manages to get into the hands of those who appreciate them.
Philadelphia, who has a long history in USBM going back to when Bloodstorm formed in the early ’90s, still continues to be an important stronghold for new blood. The first two that come to mind are Bastard Cröss, who play a savage melding of black speed metal, and Unholy Altar, a group that is steeped in the traditions of early second wave black metal, yet have the songs to back up such aesthetics.
Veil of Death! Shroud of Nite by Unholy Altar Then there are others who move on the outskirts of what could be considered “traditional black metal.” Minnesota’s Gates of Dawn, whose atmospheric black metal veers into psychedelic territory is a perfect example.
II by Gates of Dawn The bands including and surrounding New York’s Yellow Eyes (with emphasis on Sunrise Patriot Motion and Vanum being my favorite of the related projects) are another as well as anything that Alex Poole (Chaos Moon, Ringare, Häxanu, Krieg, etc.) is involved with. These are artists who demonstrate that you can experiment outside of the lines without coming off as some contrived PR marketing ploy.
This could go on and on as we work to uncover the (somewhat hidden) USBM underground from beneath the confines of capitalism masked as political discourse. The only ostensibly “American” thing about USBM that can be pulled from the platitudes and actually mean something is that we live in an incredibly diverse and enormous country, and because of this (and the wonder of the internet) USBM doesn’t have just one face, one aesthetic and one sound. The projects I’ve written about are ones that interest me, that I find a good example of the nation’s underground. Your list might be entirely different than mine, and that’s a positive thing. But I want this to hopefully inspire you to dig into it, discover new bands, and learn what’s out there besides Judas Iscariot becoming a cottage industry with “official” reissues. USBM is a constantly moving idea (or a perpetually leaking toilet, whatever metaphor you feel most comfortable with) and I’d like to think in a few years I could revisit this with even more different expressions of it.
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