Black Cobra are a sludge and doom metal duo from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2001 by guitarist/vocalist Jason Landrian and drummer Rafael Martinez, who generate a surprisingly massive sonic footprint for a two-piece. Their early releases Bestial (2006) and Feather & Stone (2007) established a heavy, groove-oriented sound drawing equally from doom, sludge, and noise rock, and the band maintained a prolific output throughout the 2000s and 2010s with releases on Southern Lord and Season of Mist.

Black Sheep Wall is a Moorpark, California sludge and doom metal band formed in 2006, named after a StarCraft cheat code. Their minimalist, downtuned approach draws comparisons to Eyehategod and early ISIS, delivering some of the heaviest and most oppressive post-metal to emerge from the American West Coast. Notable releases include No Matter Where It Ends (Season of Mist, 2012) and I'm Going to Kill Myself (2015), albums that pair crushing riff architecture with extended dynamic tension.

Black Tusk formed in Savannah, Georgia in January 2005 when members of disbanding punk bands began playing together on the same street, quickly gravitating toward what they describe as 'swamp metal'—a particularly murky strain of sludge that AllMusic linked to the broader Savannah scene alongside Baroness and Kylesa. After early releases on Hyperrealist and a series of splits, the band signed to Relapse Records in 2009, releasing Taste the Sin (2010) and Set the Dial (2011). Bassist Jonathan Athon died in November 2014 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

Bongzilla is a stoner, sludge, and doom metal band from Madison, Wisconsin, formed in 1995, whose catalog is among the most explicitly cannabis-themed in American heavy metal. The band released a string of albums on Relapse Records—including Stash (1999), Apogee (2001), Gateway (2002), and Amerijuanican (2005)—before entering a hiatus from 2009 to 2015. After reforming and returning to the touring circuit, they released their sixth studio album Dab City via Heavy Psych Sounds in June 2023, cementing their status as seminal figures in the American sludge underground.