Columbus, Ohio post-metal and psychedelic project. The Russian word for 'shark' adds predatory edge to atmospheric heaviness.

Cleveland doom and post-metal act Christmas submerges listeners in slow-moving walls of distortion and bleak atmospheric texture. Their music carries the weight of Ohio's rust belt surroundings, melding crushing heaviness with expansive sonic drift.

Dayton, Ohio's Close the Hatch have been building their atmospheric doom-post-metal sound since 2011, occupying a sonic space where Electric Wizard's psychedelic weight meets the post-metal grandeur of Neurosis. Their 2020 album Modern Witchcraft, released on Red Moth Records, stands as one of their most fully realized statements.

Cloudkicker is the solo project of Columbus, Ohio-based guitarist Ben Sharp, a commercial airline pilot who has released instrumental post-metal and djent music under that alias since 2007. Sharp composes, records, and engineers everything himself, and has distributed all releases as pay-what-you-want downloads under Creative Commons licensing, amassing an unusually large following for a DIY studio project. His breakthrough album Beacons arrived in 2010, and a short touring run in 2014 with Intronaut as a backing band marked his only live performances.

Akron, Ohio instrumental post-rock and post-metal band If These Trees Could Talk formed in 2005, built around the Kelly brothers and a three-guitar lineup that emphasizes layered melodic density and dynamic range. Their discography spans three full-length albums — Above the Earth, Below the Sky (2009), Red Forest (2012), and The Bones of a Dying World (2016), the last released through Metal Blade Records — with all prior releases subsequently reissued by that label. The band's heavier post-metal leanings distinguish them within a genre often dominated by more delicate approaches.

Dayton, Ohio's Mouth of the Architect are one of the Midwest's most respected post-metal acts, building dense, emotionally charged compositions that move between crushing heaviness and vast atmospheric space with a conviction that has defined their sound since 2006.

Toledo, Ohio's Pythian stake their claim in the slow and suffocating territory where sludge, doom, and post-metal converge, crafting ponderous, emotionally weighted compositions that reflect the decay and resilience of their Great Lakes rust-belt surroundings since 2019.

Columbus, Ohio's Reflex Machine have been bending sludge and post-metal through experimental and noise rock frameworks since 2016, creating music that resists easy categorization. Rooted in Columbus's notably adventurous underground, they pursue an abrasive, unsettled sound that values texture and dissonance as much as heaviness.

Cleveland, Ohio psychedelic doom and post-metal band formed in 2023, constructing expansive, atmosphere-heavy arrangements that move between meditative drone and crushing heaviness.