Twin Scar is a black/doom metal band from Cincinnati, Ohio, formed in 2025, combining the icy malevolence of black metal with the glacial, despairing tempos of doom metal into a dark and suffocating sound.

Operating out of St. Louis since 2020, UlvKult deal in raw, unadorned black metal with no interest in softening the edges. Stripped-down and venomous, they fit squarely in the American underground's grimier end.

Ohio's Void Meditation Cult have been active since 2013, carving out a distinct space within American black metal through music that prioritizes atmosphere and ritual over aggression and speed. The "cult" in the name is accurate — this is insular, purposeful black metal built more for immersion than shock, concerned with trance states and darkness as sustained conditions rather than momentary extremity. One of the more interesting and long-running underground black metal acts in the Midwest.

Cincinnati's Voidwitch started in 2023 with a black metal sound that carries the genre's expected malice but channels it through a witchcraft-inflected aesthetic that sharpens the occult menace. Raw production, cold riffing, and vocal delivery that sounds like something summoned rather than performed — the Ohio underground context gives their work an isolation that suits the material. Still early in their existence but already operating with clear thematic vision.

Toledo, Ohio black metal project formed in 2020, invoking Slavic mythological imagery through a raw and atmospheric approach to the genre. The name references Veles, the underworld deity of Slavic paganism, suggesting a thematic focus on death, nature, and ancient spiritual darkness.

Perrysburg, Ohio's Winter Heart have been developing atmospheric black metal since 2013, embracing the genre's most expansive, ambient-leaning qualities to craft music that is less about shock and more about immersion. The flat, grey landscapes of northwest Ohio make for a fitting backdrop for this kind of cold, contemplative black metal.

Cleveland's Witchrune arrived in 2024, adding another black metal voice to a city already known for producing some of America's most corrosive underground metal. Their approach stays in the pure black metal lane — cold, atmospheric, and unadorned by genre dilution. Cleveland's tradition of heavy, uncompromising music runs deep, and Witchrune appear to be drawing directly from that well.

Dayton, Ohio black metal project formed in 2024, emerging from a Rust Belt city with a history of extreme music and channeling the primitive, cultish energy that defines the rawer end of American black metal. One of the newest acts in the file, still early in carving out their identity in the Midwest underground.

Cleveland's Wyld Timez weaponize the rawness of first-wave black metal and fuse it to the locomotive momentum of speed metal and classic heavy metal, resulting in a high-energy blast of blackened aggression formed in 2021. Their approach pulls from the leather-and-spikes underground with a restless, reckless energy.