Julia is another contender. Julia code can be as performant as C++ code, but Julia code may be even more elegant than C++. Even without accounting for Julia's metaprogramming features, the compile-time expressiveness is top-notch.
It shares some of the same drawbacks as C++, though. The language is extremely powerful, so while it is easy to write performant code, it is also easy for non experts to write very suboptimal code.
you are right one has to be careful to avoid the GC and dynamic dispatch, but if you do it can for sure reach the same level as C++. with tightly optimized Julia code there is little to no overhead over any other low-level language.
It shares some of the same drawbacks as C++, though. The language is extremely powerful, so while it is easy to write performant code, it is also easy for non experts to write very suboptimal code.