Atlanta-based Encoffination drag doom and death metal to their slowest, most funeral-paced extremes, burying their sound under layers of sepulchral weight and murk. Few bands make the grave feel this tangible.

Sacramento stoner/doom act whose name is either deeply self-deprecating or perfectly evocative of the hazy, half-lidded tempos they've been delivering since 2017. Sun-baked California riffs slow-cooked until they collapse under their own weight.

Pasadena doom metal act Ephraim embrace the glacial tempos and crushing weight of the Southern California heavy music tradition, formed in 2021 in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Santa Monica's Erode occupies a difficult-to-pin-down zone where sludge, doom, powerviolence, and abrasive noise collide without resolution. Their catalog resists easy genre placement, favoring texture and density over any single tradition.

Los Angeles's Faetooth occupies the intersection of doom, sludge, and post-metal — a trio of subgenres that reward patience and reward volume — building their layered, emotionally heavy sound since forming in 2019.

Los Angeles's Gallery, formed in 2022, work in the grey zone between sludge and doom — music that feels deliberately paced, dense with texture, and more interested in weight than speed.

Los Angeles psychedelic sludge merchants Garbeast layer sun-scorched fuzz over cavernous doom tempos, conjuring something hallucinatory and heavy in equal measure. Since forming in 2021 they've leaned hard into the ritualistic, slow-burning end of the LA underground.

Santa Cruz, California's Gargantula has been spinning its web since 2015, weaving together progressive, stoner, doom, and death metal into something strange and sprawling. Their compositions wander freely across tempos and moods, held together by a psychedelic, spidery sensibility.

San Francisco's Genghis Bong play psychedelic doom metal thick with haze and slow-motion riffing, formed in 2023 out of the Bay Area's fertile heavy underground. The name tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.