San Diego's Garth Algar dishes out stoner-laced sludge metal with the easygoing swagger and slow-rolling heaviness that the Southern California coast seems to generate naturally. Active since 2012, the band's party-ready name belies how genuinely crushing the music gets.

Rising from the high plains of Amarillo, Texas, Garthok has been dealing in bone-dry stoner and doom metal since 2012 — a fitting sound for the flat, punishing landscape of the Texas panhandle. Slow, hazy, and heavy.

Brutal Death Metal / Hardcore / Grindcore from Fort Worth.

Named for the mythological passage of true dreams, New York's Gate of Horn weave together sludge, stoner, and doom into a hazy, lumbering mass that feels ancient and psychedelic at once. Active since 2014, they remain one of the more atmospheric acts in the tri-state heavy underground.

Rhode Island's Geomancer works within the melodic progressive metal tradition, favoring patient song structures, lush arrangements, and technically accomplished playing that never loses sight of the tune. Active since 2018, they bring a thoughtful craft to a genre often dominated by flash.

Towering Stoner / Doom Metal from Houston.

Out of Orono, Maine, GiantGiant layer stoner heaviness beneath progressive arrangements and doom-paced tempos, creating music that feels simultaneously earthbound and labyrinthine. The double name signals the doubled-down ambition behind every riff.

New York's Girder build their stoner doom sound like heavy construction — methodical, load-bearing, and made to last. Formed in 2025, they're among the newest entrants to the northeast's already formidable heavy underground.

Atlanta's Girthquake rumble through stoner and doom metal with all the seismic authority their name promises, leaning into fuzz-saturated riffs and tempos slow enough to feel tectonic. They've been shaking Georgia loose since 2017.