Colorado Springs trio Clarion Void inhabit a murky space between black metal, death metal, and sludge, where oppressive atmosphere and dissonant heaviness collide. Their music is dense and suffocating, shaped by the high-altitude bleakness of their Rocky Mountain surroundings.

Cincinnati's Clouded merge grindcore's speed with sludge metal's suffocating weight, drawing from a web of overlapping Ohio underground projects. Their early releases, including a 2016 split with Ethicist, showcase a band comfortable in filth.

Long Beach, California's Cloven deal in funeral doom and sludge metal, building songs around glacially slow tempos and crushing heaviness. Active since 2015, they've released material through Midnite Collective, including their acclaimed full-length Blackened Wings.

Muncie, Indiana's Cocaine Culture are a genre-defying chaos engine drawing from black, death, doom, sludge, and alternative metal in equal and unsettling measure. The result is a dense, disorienting sound that refuses easy categorization.

Thibodaux, Louisiana sludge metal band Cocaine Sermon channel the swampy, oppressive heaviness that southern sludge does best. Their music is thick with bayou rot and the kind of slow-burning dread that the Gulf South breeds naturally.

Lincoln, Maine sludge and stoner metal band Coelacanth draw from the isolation of rural New England to craft heavy, slow-rolling music with a distinctly bleak character. Their approach is rooted in thick riffs and an unhurried, grinding pace.

Portland, Oregon's Coffin Apartment combine death metal's blunt-force attack with sludge metal's suffocating weight, creating a claustrophobic sound that suits their name well. They're part of Portland's dense and genre-spanning extreme metal underground.

Fargo, North Dakota doom and sludge metal band Coffin Burner channel the flat, frigid desolation of the Northern Plains into slow, oppressive heaviness. They're one of the defining acts of North Dakota's small but determined metal underground.

Miami, Florida sludge metal band Coffin Dancer bring the oppressive heat and murk of South Florida to their slow, punishing sound. They're a welcome addition to Miami's growing heavy underground, operating in the humid space between sludge and doom.