New Orleans has long been a breeding ground for slow, nasty heaviness, and Eat the Witch has been part of that tradition since 2014 — doom-drenched stoner metal with a swampy, occult undercurrent.

Ecstatic Vision are a heavy psych quartet from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 2013 by guitarist Douglas Sabolik following the dissolution of A Life Once Lost. Drawing from Detroit proto-punk (MC5, The Stooges), krautrock (Can, Guru Guru), space rock (Hawkwind), and Zambian rock, the band signed to Relapse Records for their debut Sonic Praise (2015). Subsequent albums Raw Rock Fury (2017), For the Masses (2019), and Elusive Mojo (2022) continued to push the band's raw, exploratory sound.

Chicago's Edgar Allan Ectoplasm have one of heavy music's better names, and they back it up with a lurching, fog-thick blend of doom, stoner, and sludge metal that evokes humid dread — active since 2013.

Champaign, Illinois is not a city anyone expects to produce sludge, but Edna — with that deceptively unassuming name — has been dragging down midwestern tempos with thick, fuzz-drenched stoner weight since 2017.

Active off and on since 1999. One of Austin's earlier sludge/stoner acts, predating much of the city's current heavy scene.

Austin's Egypt trades in sludge and stoner metal with a Texas-sized thickness, formed in 2009 in a city whose creative underground has always made room for bands willing to slow down and get filthy.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa's Ekos has spent over a decade crafting psychedelic doom and stoner metal that feels like a long, hazy drive through the American interior. Slow-burning riffs and an acid-tinged heaviness have been their stock in trade since 2011.

Bowling Green, Kentucky's El Astronauta has been launching stoner metal salvos since 2020, wrapping heavy desert-rock riffage in cosmic ambition. The name hints at the spacey, weightless feel the band chases alongside its considerable heft.

Clearwater, Florida's El Coyote has been delivering sun-baked stoner metal since 2018, an odd but fitting home for a genre rooted in desert heat. Fuzzed-out riffs and a loping heaviness run through their sound.