Kent, Ohio's Master Bastard play hard-driving thrash metal with a blue-collar aggression that's entirely at home in a post-industrial college town. Formed in 2023, they waste no time establishing what they're about.

Salem, Ohio's Metalourd have been refining a speed and thrash metal attack since 2014, drawing from the genre's most adrenaline-fueled traditions — fast picking, aggressive tempos, and riffs built for maximum impact. The band fits squarely within the American underground speed/thrash tradition that stretches back through the 1980s, updated with a modern independent sensibility.

Lakewood, Ohio's Midevil blends heavy metal's melodic instincts with thrash's propulsive aggression, a combination the band has been refining since 2018. Their dual-genre approach gives them a range that lets them drive hard with speed when the moment calls for it and pull back into more classic heavy metal territory when the song demands it.

Toledo, Ohio's Mobile Deathcamp play a thrash-forward, hardcore-inflected attack that sits closer to the pit than the stadium, with a raw DIY sensibility running through releases like Black Swamp Rising and Summon the Destroyer. Formed in 2021, they hit hard and fast with no interest in polish.

From the small town of McConnelsville, Ohio, this trio of black, death, and thrash metal influences has been fusing extremity since 1993, generating a caustic blend of blast-driven aggression and riff-heavy menace.

This Ohio speed and thrash metal band formed in 2021, drawing from classic speed metal's frenetic tempos and the hard-edged attack of early thrash for a driving, old-school sensibility.

Cincinnati's Mournblade fuse the soaring hooks of power metal with the propulsive aggression of thrash, arriving on the scene in 2023 with an energetic attack that nods to classic US metal traditions.

Cleveland, Ohio's MSOD blur the lines between power, thrash, and traditional heavy metal, pulling from each genre's strengths to craft a hard-hitting, versatile attack that reflects the city's deeply rooted metallic blue-collar heritage since 2020.

Cleveland, Ohio's Mystik formed in 2018 and blend power and thrash metal into a high-energy combination — the melodic ambition and vocal hooks of power metal fused with the speed and aggression of thrash, giving their music a driving, hook-laden intensity.