Chicago's Damn the Buzzards emerged in 2022 with a stoner metal sound built on fuzz-drenched riffs, heavy grooves, and the loose, hazy swagger that the genre does best. A welcome addition to the city's heavy underground, channeling desert rock energy through a Midwest filter.

Fort Madison, Iowa's Damn the Gods have been pushing slow, heavy stoner doom from the middle of the country since 2005, a two-decade run that speaks to the resilience of heavy music far from major scenes. Their sound is rooted in riff worship and the meditative pull of low tempos.

Savannah, Georgia's Damned to Earth have been wallowing in the sonic mire of stoner, sludge, and doom since 2021, conjuring a suffocating heaviness that feels bred in the swampy heat of the South. Slow, massive, and relentless.

Oakland's Danuta bring a punk-laced rawness to stoner metal that keeps their fuzz-heavy riffs from ever getting too comfortable. Formed in 2022, the band embodies the Bay Area underground's instinct to smash genres together and see what survives.

San Jose's Dark Earth root their stoner metal in the heavy, fuzz-drenched low end that defines the genre — slow enough to feel the weight, loud enough to feel the heat. The Bay Area act has been cultivating their sound since 2012.

Detroit, Michigan is fertile ground for heavy, ugly music, and Dark Passages have leaned into that inheritance since 2022 — a sludge, stoner, and doom hybrid that sounds exactly like the city it comes from.

Bristol, Rhode Island's Dark Ritual sit at the slower, heavier end of things — stoner and doom metal built for long drives and longer nights, a band that lets riffs breathe and atmosphere do the work.

Tacoma's Dark Voyager has been piloting fuzz-heavy stoner metal through the Pacific Northwest since 2014, where the region's weather and its weed culture make this genre feel entirely natural.

Boone, North Carolina stoner/doom duo Darth Kannabyss deliver slow, haze-soaked riffing from the high country of the Appalachians, where heavy music has always had room for a little cosmic menace alongside the smoke.

Atlanta's Dayglo Mourning pair stoner metal's fuzz-soaked swagger with doom's deliberate weight, arriving at a sound that moves slow and hits hard. Since 2018, they've added texture to the city's heavy underground with psychedelic tinges that keep their dirges from ever feeling one-dimensional.

Phoenix's Daytripper drag stoner and doom metal through the desert heat with a sun-baked, hazy approach that transforms the Arizona landscape into sonic texture. Since forming in 2022, they've leaned fully into the slow, sweltering side of the genre — music for long drives through the Sonoran expanse.

Lansing, Michigan's Dead Daughters sink deep into the overlap between stoner and doom metal, building slow, haze-soaked riffs that feel at once colossal and oddly meditative. The Rust Belt atmosphere seeps into every drawn-out note.

Iowa City's Dead Emperors trade in warm, fuzz-drenched stoner metal that sounds tailor-made for long drives through the state's flat, open plains — unhurried, heavy, and built around the kind of riff that settles into your chest and stays there.

Nashua, New Hampshire's Dead Harrison fuse doom's meditative weight with stoner metal's psychedelic warmth, forming a hazy, riff-worshipping sound since 2014 that draws equally from classic heavy metal and smoke-filled basement jams.

Indianapolis' Dead Princess Black Unicorn splice industrial machinery into the bones of black and stoner metal, arriving at something genuinely strange and hard to categorize. The juxtaposition of heaviness and mechanical noise gives them a personality few acts can match.