Portland, Oregon's Rotting Sky has spent over a decade building suffocating soundscapes where funeral doom's glacial pace meets the bleak atmospherics of black metal and ambient drone. Their music is slow, cavernous, and oppressive — less concerned with riffs than with the weight of sustained decay.

Texas act Rougarou, formed in 2024, takes their name from the Cajun werewolf legend and channels it into raw black metal laced with folk elements — an unsettling mix that roots their sound in regional myth and primitive riffing. It's an early but sharp-edged project with a distinctly American folkloric slant.

Relentless Black Metal out of Texas.

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.

Heavy Groove Metal from McAllen.

Orlando's Royal Graves fuse the brooding weight of doom and sludge with post-metal's cinematic expansiveness, crafting music that moves between crushing low-end heaviness and more spacious, emotionally textured passages. Formed in 2017, they're a thoughtful presence in Florida's heavier underground.

Royal Thunder are a hard rock and psychedelic rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2004 by guitarist Josh Weaver, blending classic rock dynamics with grunge weight and progressive textures. Signed to Relapse Records, the band released their full-length debut CVI in 2012 to critical praise, with NPR calling them 'a modern master of hard-rock,' and continued through Crooked Doors (2015) and Rebuilding the Mountain (2023).

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.

San Francisco's Rubicon has been refining a progressive and power metal hybrid since 2015, drawing on the Bay Area's rich technical metal heritage while reaching for the soaring, melodic ambition that defines the power metal tradition. Their music balances intricate composition with driving, anthemic energy.