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.

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.

Cincinnati's Riesenwolf — German for 'giant wolf' — have been forging a black/heavy metal hybrid since 2022 that draws on the epic qualities of traditional heavy metal while blackening the edges with tremolo-picked menace and harsher vocal work. The Cincinnati underground doesn't always get its due nationally, but Riesenwolf represent a strain of Midwestern metal that combines the grandeur of classic metal songwriting with genuinely extreme sonic aggression. Two years in, they sound like a band already fully formed in their vision.

Ringworm are a metalcore and hardcore band from Cleveland, Ohio, with origins tracing to 1989 under the name Force of Habit and formally operating as Ringworm from 1991. Blending first-wave black metal aesthetics with New York hardcore and thrash aggression, the band released multiple albums through Victory Records and have maintained their reputation as one of the most consistently punishing live acts in American hardcore over more than three decades.

Columbus guitarist Rob Johnson has been developing his craft since 2009 at the crossroads of neoclassical shred and progressive metal, where technical velocity meets compositional ambition. His solo work draws on the lineage of players like Malmsteen and Petrucci but filters it through a distinctly contemporary sensibility focused on melodic clarity alongside precision.

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.