Salem, Ohio's Psyclosarin formed in 2019 playing a grinding hybrid of groove and death metal — the combination of rhythmic heaviness and technical death metal aggression gives them a distinct character within Ohio's active and underrated heavy underground.

Cleveland's Putrefy deal in a corroded hybrid of black and death metal, leaning into atmosphere as much as brutality with a raw, caustic sound that reflects the rust-belt underground. Active since 2014, they occupy a grimy middle ground where blastbeats collide with dissonant, suffocating riffcraft.

Dayton, Ohio's Putrid Stu is a goregrind and brutal death metal project that leans hard into the absurdist, splatter-film side of the genre — a one-person or small-band affair that has been churning out crude, blasting extremity since 2018. The Dayton underground has produced some fierce acts, and Putrid Stu fits squarely in that tradition of low-budget, high-intensity noise.

From the small town of Byesville, Ohio, Reclusa have built one of the more genuinely hybrid sounds in the American underground since 2017 — death/doom heaviness threaded through with black metal cold, industrial noise, and dark ambient texture. The isolation of their rural Ohio setting comes through in music that feels removed from any scene, answering only to its own grim logic.

Formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2022, Rose Funeral delivers a punishing blend of death metal and deathcore that hits with unrelenting brutality. Their sound is rooted in gut-level heaviness, pairing down-tuned ferocity with the structural aggression that defines contemporary deathcore.

Hailing from Kent, Ohio and active since 2008, Rotting Mutilation pursues a straightforward death metal path rooted in gore and grotesque imagery, keeping faith with the genre's most uncompromising traditions. Their longevity in the underground speaks to a committed, no-frills approach to brutality.

Parma, Ohio's Sanhedrin have been pursuing death metal with no-frills directness since 2015, building in the industrial shadow of Cleveland's storied heavy music history. Their approach favors blunt force over ornamentation — death metal as practiced by a band that has no interest in softening the genre's essential violence.

Cincinnati, Ohio's Scab Hag formed in 2021 and carved out a niche in straightforward, no-frills death metal in the classic mold — grimy riffs, guttural vocals, and a sound that doesn't reach for complexity so much as it reaches for your throat. Their name suggests both ugliness and irreverence, two qualities that map cleanly onto the music.

Dayton, Ohio's Scrotal Erosion arrived in 2024 trafficking in goregrind and death metal with the kind of grotesque specificity that the gore-adjacent subgenre demands — absurdist extremity, medical-horror song concepts, and a sound that prioritizes repulsiveness as an aesthetic virtue. Dayton has a quietly rich tradition of underground metal and hardcore, and Scrotal Erosion continues that tradition in its most extreme, least marketable form. New to the scene but clearly committed to the bit.