Grand Rapids, Michigan's Rip VanRipper have been rolling through the stoner metal and rock underground since 2015, building a sound defined by fuzzed-out riffs, laid-back grooves, and a hazy, road-worn attitude. Their name is a playful nod to their approach — heavy but loose, napping between riffs before snapping back to life with a crushing passage. They're a reliable presence in the Midwestern stoner metal circuit, with years of work to back up their reputation.

Rites emerged in 2016 wielding a raw, venomous blend of black and thrash metal that leans hard into aggression over atmosphere. Their sound channels the reckless fury of early Sodom and Bathory — stripped down, fast, and deliberately unpolished. The band's Bandcamp presence under 'thedurites' hints at a sardonic self-awareness that makes their corrosive output all the more compelling.

Philadelphia's Ritual Earth blend stoner metal's fuzz-soaked groove with doom's crushing weight, a combination that trades in the psychedelic rather than the horrific. Since 2018 they've been developing a sound rooted in Electric Wizard territory while carrying the grittiness of a band forged in a city that doesn't romanticize its edges. The Philly underground gives them a scrappy foundation that keeps the stoner haze from drifting too far into self-indulgence.

Saint Paul, Minnesota's Roach Eater have been serving up stoner/doom since 2019, a genre combination that thrives in the upper Midwest's long winters and appreciation for music that sprawls and crushes in equal measure. Their sound lives in the low end — fuzz-heavy riffs that move at funeral pace while carrying just enough psychedelic haze to keep things interesting. The name is deliberately off-putting, but it captures the band's refusal to make anything easy or comfortable.

Out of Morgantown, West Virginia, Rott materialized in 2021 with a sound anchored in the slow churn of doom metal and the hazy, amplifier-driven heft of stoner rock. Their music reflects the isolation of the Mountain State — lumbering, smoke-filled, and built for maximum low-end saturation.

Los Angeles outfit Rowsdower, active since 2011, occupies the slow and swampy intersection of sludge, stoner, and doom metal — thick riffs, deliberate tempos, and the kind of hazy, heavy atmosphere that the LA underground has cultivated for decades. Their sound favors groove and weight over speed.

Boston's Rozamov, formed in 2015, blend the psychedelic haze of stoner metal with the slow, oppressive roll of doom, building long-form songs that burn low and heavy without sacrificing atmosphere for riff worship. They are a reliable fixture in the northeastern heavy underground.

New Jersey's Ruins have been grinding out heavy, fuzz-saturated stoner metal since 2001, drawing on the genre's psychedelic and blues-soaked roots with a sound built for low-end punishment.

Out of Great Falls, Montana, Runecaller traffic in slow-burning stoner doom, fusing the fuzz-heavy haze of stoner rock with the lumbering dread of doom metal in one of the state's more isolated metal scenes since 2022.