USBM stands for United States Black Metal. Although Scandinavia is typically regarded as the birthplace of modern black metal, some American bands such as Von and Profanatica saw their start in the late 1980s before many of the Second Wave black metal bands in Europe even began rehearsing. USBM has many different styles but Paul Ledney of Profanatica states that USBM (being that it developed more from possessed seven churches than future second wave bands) took more death metal influence, being more bestial, low tuned and bass heavy. USBM bands often are much darker and less epic sounding, focusing more on first wave influences and single note tremolo riffs (atleast USBM prior to the second wave norwegian explosion. USBM nowadays encompasses many different styles of black metal, from bestial war metal, to atmospheric cascadian bm.