Toledo's Immortal Soul stormed into the Ohio underground in 2024 with speed and thrash metal built for velocity — lean, direct, and carrying the urgency of a band with something to prove.

Formed in Dayton, Ohio in 2013, Karnage fuse power metal's soaring melodicism with the aggressive crunch of thrash, delivering anthemic riffs alongside plenty of speed and bite.

The name is absurdist; the music is not — Cincinnati's Killer Refrigerator play death-thrash that hits hard and doesn't waste time, formed in 2014 with the focus of a band that knows exactly what it wants to deliver.

Canton, Ohio thrash outfit L.O.U.D. — short for Lavish Outlandish Unruly Destiny — deliver fast-hitting riffs and punk-inflected aggression with a DIY chip on their shoulder. Formed in 2012, they keep the spirit of Bay Area-style thrash alive in Ohio's rust belt.

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.