Madison, Wisconsin stoner metal band Cuda deal in thick, vintage-toned riffs and laid-back grooves with a muscle car swagger built into every song. Their Midwest take on the genre leans into fuzz and groove in equal measure.

Portland, Oregon's Cue the Sun blend black metal's coldness with stoner and sludge metal's slow, heavy weight, creating music that is both oppressive and psychedelic. Their Pacific Northwest sound carries the region's trademark blend of beauty and bleakness.

Portland, Oregon stoner and doom metal outfit Cull move at a heavy, methodical pace, building oppressive walls of fuzz that carry the Pacific Northwest's heavy tradition. Their music is slow, deliberate, and saturated with low-end weight.

Sacramento's Cura Cochino — Spanish for 'dirty priest' — are a husband-and-wife doom act whose morbid, Black Sabbath-rooted sound is transported into Baja California when vocalist Priscila sings in Spanish and unleashes grito Mexicano howls over grinding, funeral-weight riffs. Their doom en español is something singular in the American metal landscape.

Jackson, Tennessee's Curmudgeon describe their music as 'hermit metal,' a self-aware tag for their idiosyncratic mix of doom, stoner heaviness, and grindcore brevity that resists easy categorization. Active since 2006, the Tennessee outliers built a small but devoted following by doing exactly as they pleased in the middle of nowhere.

Connecticut doom and stoner metal duo from East Haven conjuring massive, fuzz-laden riffs and meditative heaviness. Curse the Son operates in the tradition of sleep-deprived, riff-worship doom with hypnotic repetition.

San Antonio doom and stoner metal band built on crushing, fuzz-soaked riffs and a deliberate slow-burn approach. Cursus navigates desert-heavy sonic territory with the patient, enveloping weight of Texas stone and heat.

Kansas City stoner metal band riding massive, fuzz-driven riffs and a laid-back heavy groove. Custom Black operates in the tradition of heavy riff worship, built for high-volume listening in smoke-hazed spaces.

Youngstown, Ohio doom and stoner metal band spelling out heaviness in a deliberately obscured name as raw and slow as their riffs. CVTTVNMVVTH drags through cavernous, fuzz-drenched dirges from the Rust Belt underground.