Out of Athens, Ohio — a college town with a surprising streak of underground metal — Tarantula Downpour have been crafting heavy metal with character since 2017. They play with a grounded, no-frills intensity that reflects their small-city roots, where influence arrives late and originality fills the gaps left by isolation.

Canton, Ohio's The Behest of Serpents deal in melodic death metal with a coiling, venom-laced attack that suits their name — sharp melodic leads threaded through a backbone of heavy, purposeful riffing. Formed in 2021, they're part of a new wave of Midwestern acts proving that the region's industrial heritage continues to produce some of the country's most serious death metal.

Columbus, Ohio's The Conquering have been forging their own brand of Viking and folk-inflected black metal since 2006, drawing on themes of Norse mythology and pagan lore without losing the ferocity that grounds the music. The Midwest setting gives their atmosphere a particular starkness — wide, cold, and elemental — that suits the genre's epic scope.

Dayton, Ohio's The Devil Wears Prada brought a cinematic grandeur to metalcore that few peers could match, from the orchestral bombast of 'With Roots Above and Branches Below' to the atmospheric concept album 'Space EP.' Mike Hranica's ferocious screams paired with Jeremy DePoyster's clean vocals created a dynamic template, and their evolution through 'Color Decay' and 'The Act' has shown a band continually pushing beyond metalcore's boundaries.

Sandusky, Ohio's The Plot In You have undergone one of metalcore's most dramatic transformations under the creative vision of vocalist-producer Landon Tewers, evolving from the unrelenting aggression of early albums like 'Could You Watch Your Children Burn' into the dark, electronic-tinged alternative rock of 'Dispose' and 'Swan Song.' Tewers's willingness to completely reinvent the band's sound with each release, moving from screaming metalcore to haunting, atmospherically dense rock, has won them a broader audience while retaining the emotional intensity that has always defined their work. His prolific solo production work has further established Tewers as one of the scene's most talented multi-hyphenate creators.

Cincinnati's The Vile Doctrine blend deathcore's breakdown-heavy architecture with the putrid mid-tempo grind of old-school death metal, crafting a sound that sits at the uglier, more aggressive end of the Ohio underground since their 2020 formation.

Springfield, Ohio's This Blessed Hatred fuse the mid-tempo chug of groove metal with the high-tension dynamics of metalcore, producing a sound built for impact on both the stage and the pit.

Cincinnati's Thorns of the Carrion have been building their atmospheric gothic doom/death sound since 2000, blending the mournful grandeur of gothic metal with death metal weight and doom's measured pace. The long-running Ohio act occupies a space where beauty and decay intertwine across decades of output.

Twinsburg, Ohio's Thou Shalt Not have been a steadfast presence in the Ohio death metal scene since forming in 2000, building a catalog rooted in mid-period American death metal with a commitment to the genre's founding principles. Longevity in a regional underground is its own testament to the band's dedication.