Named for Tolkien's monstrous spider, Cleveland's Shelob spins cold, atmospheric black metal with a predatory patience, building dense webs of tremolo and darkness since 2011.

Cleveland's Silence the Desolated began with noise and ambient experimentation before moving into black metal, a trajectory that informs a sound where atmosphere and abrasion coexist in equal measure since 2025.

Cleveland, Ohio's Skogwulf, formed in 2026, bring black metal out of the Rust Belt with a name evoking forest wolves — a new voice in a city with a surprisingly deep underground tradition, channeling bleakness through the genre's most confrontational sonic textures.

An Ohio black metal and punk hybrid active since 2001, Slavehouse occupy the ugly, uncompromising space where those two genres collide into something rawer than either alone. Their two-decade-plus run makes them veterans of a strain of American black metal that refuses to be polished or accommodating.

Somber are a Cincinnati, Ohio depressive black metal act formed in 2017, crafting bleak and emotionally raw material in the tradition of DSBM, characterized by cold atmospheres and introspective anguish.

Sons of Belial is a melodic black/death metal band from Cleveland, Ohio, formed in 2014, combining the melody and atmosphere of Scandinavian black metal with the crushing brutality of death metal.

Sorcerőt are a heavy and black metal band from Cincinnati, Ohio, formed in 2024, blending the occult swagger of traditional heavy metal with black metal's aggressive edge in a debut that signals a dark, riff-obsessed direction.

Spiral Staircase is a black metal outfit from Cleveland, Ohio, formed in 2022 under the name Spiral Staircase Coven, channeling raw misanthropic energy through orthodox black metal aesthetics.

Stake Driver is a Dayton, Ohio black metal band formed in 2021, playing raw and aggressive black metal steeped in the cold, primitive atmosphere of the genre's second-wave roots.