Los Angeles' Hexen bring melodic sophistication and progressive ambition to the thrash template, threading complex arrangements through otherwise hard-hitting material. Their approach reflects the technical tradition of the LA metal scene while reaching toward something more compositionally adventurous.

Salt Lake City's Hibernaut pile sludge, stoner, and doom into a slow-moving mass that seems calibrated to induce a specific kind of narcotic heaviness. Formed in 2023, they occupy the hazy zone where riff weight and psychedelic drift become the same thing.

Franklin, Indiana's Hidden Dagger blend stoner haze and doom weight with groove metal's rhythmic snap, arriving at something simultaneously lumbering and propulsive. Since 2018 they've proven that mid-tempo heaviness can carry as much punch as anything faster.

Oakland's High on Fire are one of the defining forces in American doom and sludge, built on Matt Pike's mythological vision and the kind of riff density that makes everything around it feel thin. Since reforming their presence in the early 2010s, they have remained one of the heaviest and most uncompromising bands on earth.

Philadelphia's High Reeper navigate the border between doom metal and hard rock with the ease of a band that doesn't feel the need to fully commit to either camp. Since 2017, they've written songs built for maximum riff payoff, borrowing from classic rock's instinct for the hook without softening their heaviness.

Melodic death/doom started as a one-man project by Casey Hurd. Signed to Napalm Records. Albums include Order Divine and Shatter And Fall.

The name alone announces Eugene, Oregon's Hippie Death Cult as a band with a sense of humor about the stoner doom genre they clearly love. Since 2019 they've delivered fuzz-caked, psychedelic doom that is simultaneously self-aware and genuinely heavy.

Philadelphia's Hivelords collapse the boundaries between black metal, doom, and sludge into a dense, oppressive mass that borrows from each tradition without fully belonging to any of them. Since 2011 they've occupied a particularly unpleasant corner of the extreme metal underground, and they seem comfortable there.

New Hampshire's Hobo Wizard conjure doom and stoner metal with the kind of grim, scrappy personality their name implies — heavy, slow, and unconcerned with refinement. The project, active since 2022, sounds like it was assembled from salvaged parts and is better for it.