Burial Oath rise from Cleveland, Ohio channeling the cold fury of Scandinavian black metal through an American lens, drawing inspiration from Watain, Taake, and Mayhem. Founded in 2016, the band weaves death rituals and occult Satanic themes through raw, tremolo-picked aggression and blast-beat fury. Their devotion to the second wave black metal aesthetic gives them an authenticity that resonates with purists of the genre.

Wellsville, Ohio death/thrash outfit Cabal was a side project of Killjoy of Necrophagia formed after that band's initial breakup; the name comes from Clive Barker's novella Cabal, and the band released through Red Stream, Inc.

Cleveland black metal act Cabra have been active since 2016, channeling themes of war, destruction, misanthropy, and anti-religion into their uncompromising sound.

A death metal band from Columbus, Ohio, Cadavarice pursues an uncompromising old-school approach to the genre, built on crushing riffs and blunt, violent energy.

Death metal band from Canton, Ohio that formed in 2018, delivering straightforward brutality from the Ohio underground.

Columbus, Ohio thrash/speed metal band that formed in 1997 and has since split up, representing the no-frills aggression of the Ohio metal underground.

Ohio heavy metal band whose lone demo surfaced in 1989 before the group quietly dissolved, leaving behind a cassette-only snapshot of late-80s underground metal.

Ohio-based sludge/punk hybrid that mashes the crawling heaviness of sludge metal with punk's raw, stripped-down hostility.

Ohio thrash/death metal band dealing in the aggressive overlap of thrash riffing and death metal intensity before splitting up.