Wolftooth formed in Richmond, Indiana in 2017, comprising musicians with two decades of genre experience each, pursuing a sound that fuses 1970s NWOBHM energy, stoner doom riffage, and blues-drenched soloing. Their self-titled debut (2018) placed seventh on the Doom Charts' year-end list, and Valhalla (2020) debuted at number one on the same chart, leading to a deal with Napalm Records. Blood and Iron (2021) and Wizard's Light (2025, Ripple Music) have sustained their reputation as one of the foremost traditional doom-inflected heavy metal acts in the US.

Phoenix's Wolves of Winter pull from the long tradition of doom and stoner metal — slow, crushing riffs draped in fuzz and desert heat. Formed in 2013, their sound sits somewhere between the hypnotic weight of doom and the narcotic groove of stoner rock, building the kind of heavy that settles in the chest. Metal Archives tags them with hard rock in the mix as well, pointing to a band that knows when to let a riff breathe.

Seattle's Worn Away have been an interesting shape-shifter since their 2013 formation, moving from doom and stoner metal origins toward a harder-edged crossover thrash and death metal sound over time. That evolution mirrors a broader restlessness in the Pacific Northwest underground, where genre boundaries are treated more as starting points than destinations.

Chicago grindcore outfit Worn Out have been honing their craft since 2017, channeling the city's rich history of extreme music into short, savage bursts of noise. Grindcore in its most functional form — fast, ugly, and unapologetic — has always found a home in Chicago, and Worn Out carry that tradition forward without sentimentality.

Brooklyn's Wretched Tsar have been dragging sludge and stoner metal through New York's underground since 2016, combining the slow, crushing weight of sludge with the hazy, amplifier-worship side of stoner metal. The result is heavy in both mass and atmosphere, made for dark rooms and loud speakers.

Tennessee's Wëëdkiller are a nascent stoner/doom act formed in 2026, crafting slow, hazy heaviness from the fertile Southern underground where heat and humidity seem to seep into every downtuned riff. Their name and sound together point toward a band comfortable wallowing in the slow burn.

YOB formed in Eugene, Oregon in 1996 under the direction of guitarist and vocalist Mike Scheidt, building a body of work that stands among the most singular and emotionally resonant in American doom metal. After an initial period of activity through 2005, Scheidt reformed the band in 2008 and continued with bassist Aaron Rieseberg and drummer Dave French, releasing a sequence of acclaimed albums — Clearing the Path to Ascend (2014), and Our Raw Heart (2018, Relapse Records) — the latter composed while Scheidt recovered from a near-fatal intestinal disease. Their capacity to sustain long-form compositions of both crushing weight and genuine transcendence has made them a defining act in modern doom.

Monolithic Stoner / Doom Metal from Austin.