Our Raw Heart by YOB (2018) on the left and Grief's Infernal Flower by Windhand (2015).
For those that haven't heard these bands, they are both are fantastic stoner/doom releases, but within those subgenres, they couldn't be more different, IMHO.
YOB is more proggy and sludgy with some fairly mellow melodic songs and very deep, introspective lyrics. They are known for having pretty long songs, even by stoner/doom standards, with 10 songs over the 10 minute mark on their last three albums. Adrift in the Ocean and Beauty in Falling Leaves are both pretty good entry points.
Windhand is slow and heavy as fuck, with a pretty psychedelic sound and dreamy, reverby, clean female vocals, which I've heard called doomgaze. Frankly, there's not a bad entry point, but Grey Garden and Forest Clouds were two of the first songs that got me into doom in the first place
It was some sort of life-threatening health scare, but I seen to recall it being intestinal...something. Diverticulitis, maybe? Either way, you're absolutely right that it totally informed the album and really leveled up their game.
Maybe, maybe. Can't recall, it could've been associated in my mind that way due to the name of the album.