Oklahoma City metalcore project. The absent — lost or disappeared — channeled through aggressive music.

Minneapolis sludge metal project. Ophidian imagery rendered in crushing Twin Cities heaviness.

Tucson sludge metal duo conjuring apocalyptic heaviness from the Arizona desert since 2017. Their releases — Monuments to Departed Worlds and The Elysian Void — deal in the kind of monolithic, slow-burning devastation that sounds like the Sonoran landscape crumbling to dust.

Memphis thrash metal project from the Tennessee underground.

Anatomy of Habit is a Chicago post-metal and doom collective formed in 2008 by vocalist Mark Solotroff and guitarist Alex Latus, blending post-metal, sludge, post-punk, death-rock, and drone influences into extended, atmospheric compositions. The band released their debut on their own before issuing Ciphers + Axioms in 2014 on Relapse Records, followed by Even If It Takes a Lifetime (2021) and Black Openings (2023). Their sound is notably slow and enveloping, drawing from industrial and experimental traditions as much as from metal.

Los Angeles sludge metal trio laying waste since 2014. Three releases of corrosive, tar-thick heaviness that channels the smog-choked sprawl of LA into music that feels like breathing in exhaust fumes — oppressive, toxic, and oddly addictive.

Pittsburgh sludge metal project whose 2023 self-titled debut wallows in the kind of slow, agonizing heaviness the Steel City specializes in. The name is truth in advertising — this is music designed to crush.

North Carolina sludge metal project.

Piedmont Triad sludge metal project from the North Carolina underground.