Hawthorne Heights became unlikely emo icons from Dayton, Ohio, with their 2004 debut 'The Silence in Black and White' producing the inescapable hit 'Ohio Is for Lovers.' The band's blend of screamo intensity and pop-punk accessibility, featuring JT Woodruff's dual clean-and-screamed vocal approach, defined the mid-2000s emo movement for millions of fans. Despite personal tragedies including the death of guitarist Casey Calvert, the band has persevered, continuing to release music and tour with the resilience their loyal fanbase mirrors.

Out of Wellsville, Ohio, Haxxan have channeled raw, atmospheric black metal into their work since 2017, building on a tradition of American underground black metal that prizes sincerity and darkness over production values. Their Bandcamp presence signals a deliberately lo-fi, DIY aesthetic.

Cleveland black/thrash outfit Headless Rats channel the rabid, scabrous energy of first-wave black metal and Motorhead-indebted punk thrash into a sound that's filthy and fast in equal measure. Since 2014 they've been a reliable source of dangerous, unpolished extremity from the Rust Belt.

Cincinnati's Heathen Knight throw thrash, death metal, and grindcore into a single chaotic vessel and let the collision speak for itself. Since 2016, the Ohio act has favored brutish efficiency over nuance, making them one of the Midwest's more reliably ferocious crossover outfits.

Born from the rust belt shadows of East Liverpool, Ohio, Heidentum channels a raw and ancient fury through primitive black metal that feels ripped straight from northern European soil. Formed in 2021, the project embraces pagan hostility with an American grimness all its own.

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Formed in Mentor, Ohio in 1993, Hemdale were a grind-gore band whose abrasive extremity and relentless live performances earned them a significant underground following before a 1997 split. The band's 1996 split release with Exhumed, In the Name of Gore, remains a key document of the era, and their network extended through drummer Craig Rowe's Visceral Productions, which played a role in the early careers of Nile, Exhumed, and Dying Fetus. Hemdale reformed in 2013 with vocalist and guitarist Matthew Rositano as the sole original member.

Akron's Hieros draw on the melodic black metal tradition to create music that is sweeping without being saccharine, atmospheric without surrendering aggression. Since 2020 the project has built a sound that sits somewhere between the triumphant and the grim.

Toledo, Ohio's Hope Hole emerged in 2021 playing suffocating doom metal that sounds exactly as bleak as the name implies. Slow, heavy, and without consolation — crawling forward at the pace of deep grief.