Denver's The Marred emerged in 2019 with a sound rooted in the slow, suffocating weight of doom metal and the hazy warmth of stoner metal — two traditions that share more than most let on. Their riffs move like tectonic plates, unhurried and inevitable, and the band leans into a psychedelic thickness that rewards patience. In a city with a robust heavy music scene, The Marred carve out space through deliberate heaviness rather than speed or complexity.

Billings, Montana's The Old Ones have been cultivating their blend of stoner, sludge, and doom metal since 2015, drawing on the isolation of the northern plains to fuel music that is slow, heavy, and oppressive in the best possible sense. Their sound sits in the long shadow of Lovecraftian dread — fitting for a band whose name references forces older than human understanding.

Named after the bone-devouring deep-sea worms, this McLean, Virginia trio crafts atmospheric sludge/doom/post-metal built around sprawling, longform compositions that open with post-metallic calm before collapsing into harrowing dual vocals — haggard Neurosis-style yells alongside creature-like shrieks — backed by black metal blast beats and cavernous low-end. Their 2020 album Meridians pushed further into drone and ambient minimalism, cementing their reputation as one of the more adventurous acts in the American atmospheric sludge underground.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee doom/stoner metal band formed in 2015, dealing in fuzz-drenched, Sabbath-worshipping heaviness built on crushing low-tuned riffs and powerful groove-oriented rhythms. Released through Ripple Music, their LP Looking for Today pairs psychedelic stoner rock atmosphere with the slower, heavier pulse of traditional doom metal, making no apologies for their deeply roots-minded approach.

Westminster, Colorado doom/sludge metal outfit formed in 2023, built on oppressive slow tempos, distortion-caked guitar tone, and a suffocating atmosphere that characterizes the best of the genre's Colorado contingent. A newer act already leaning into the heaviest end of the sludge spectrum.

Seattle doom metal band formed in 2014, occupying the slower, noisier edge where doom metal bleeds into noise rock — a corner of the sound that feels appropriate given Seattle's long history with both heavy and abrasive music. Their material is dissonant and unhurried.

Chicago doom metal band formed in 2015 by former members of The Obsessed, carrying forward a lineage that connects them directly to some of the most important names in American doom. Their music is slow, heavy, and steeped in the classic doom tradition that prizes mood and weight over speed.

Portland blackened sludge and doom metal outfit formed in 2014, fusing the corrosive atmosphere of black metal with the slow, crushing heaviness of sludge and doom in a combination that the Pacific Northwest underground has proven particularly fertile ground for cultivating. Their sound is dense, dissonant, and deliberately oppressive.

Hutchinson, Kansas act The Space Between pursue the crushing middle ground between death metal's aggression and doom's suffocating weight, forging death-doom that moves at a glacial, deliberate pace. Formed in 2019, their sound is marked by low tunings and a relentless sense of dread.

Santa Cruz's The Sun Must Die channel death-doom's most oppressive impulses — slow, tar-thick riffs laid over cavernous death metal vocals — into a sound that feels as though the California coastline has been swallowed by darkness. Formed in 2015, the project leans into the nihilistic end of the doom-death spectrum.

Stoner doom institution. 'Age of Winters' put Austin heavy rock on the map.

Chicago's The Unshored weave black metal harshness, doom metal weight, and progressive metal architecture into a cohesive whole since forming in 2015. Their sound is searching and bleak, trading in long-form compositions that move through icy bleakness and crushing low-end in equal measure.

Formed in Nixa, Missouri in 2019, The Valley of Hinnom take their name from the biblical site of sacrifice and channel that gravitas into doom/death metal that is both deliberate and suffocating. Their music moves with funeral weight, leaning into dread rather than aggression.

Austin power trio blending knotty prog, punk, and bluesy doom rock.

Out of Midland, Michigan, The Wizard of Bong Mountain lean into every expectation their name sets — slow, fuzzy stoner doom built for maximum low-end punishment, the kind of riff-worship that makes a virtue of repetition and deliberate, crushing tempo.