Pasadena's Half Moon Codex operate at the intersection of sludge, drone, and doom — long-form compositions that move with the patience of tectonic plates and the weight to match. Formed in 2018, they're a fixture in the Southern California heavy underground.

Oakland's Harvestman is the project of Steve Von Till of Neurosis, applying his vision to folk and drone metal of eerie, meditative quality. Active since 2005, the project weaves ancient folk feeling through trance-inducing drone textures in ways that feel genuinely ritualistic.

Hashishian traffic in a slow-moving collision of drone, doom, and stoner metal that feels less like a song and more like sinking. Formed in 2023, the project leans into immense, meditative weight, letting each tone hang in the air long past its welcome.

Chico, California's Hearses combine drone, sludge, and doom into a crushing slow-motion procession built from sustained dissonance and mountainous low-end pressure. Since 2021 they've inhabited the unhurried, suffocating space where all three genres converge.

Carrollton, Georgia's Her Name Is Death emerged in 2025 with a triptych of doom, drone, and sludge that moves like a slow flood — irreversible and all-consuming. One of the newer acts in the Southern heavy underground, their intentions are already unmistakably bleak.