Ohio's Morgue Dweller emerged in 2022 at the intersection of death metal and goregrind, specializing in the kind of grotesque, fast, and filthy material that both genres' most devoted fans demand. Their goregrind influence adds a particularly absurdist horror-movie dimension to the death metal foundation.

Toledo, Ohio's Morkast play progressive death metal with a sharp focus on structure and technical craft since 2019, part of a broader wave of Midwest bands injecting cerebral ambition into the extremity of death metal.

This Ohio speed and thrash metal band formed in 2021, drawing from classic speed metal's frenetic tempos and the hard-edged attack of early thrash for a driving, old-school sensibility.

This Ohio band operate in the dirty crossover territory between sludge metal and crust punk, piling on thick, down-tuned riffs with the filthy, grinding ethos of the crust underground.

Ohio brutal death metal outfit Mortuary Ghoul, active since 2020, specialize in the genre's most pulverizing and grotesque end — slamming rhythms, guttural vocals, and a relentless devotion to brutality from deep in the Midwest underground.

Cincinnati stoner metal outfit Moss Mother formed in 2023, working a riff-forward style that favors thick, hazy tones and hypnotic groove — a new act in the Ohio underground leaning into the fuzzy, psychedelic end of heavy rock.

Cincinnati's Moth Priest bring a ritualistic weight to stoner/doom metal, formed in 2021 with a sound that favors glacial tempos and hazy, amplifier-worship aesthetics — part of a quietly active heavy underground in southern Ohio.

Cleveland heavy metal act Mothers Worry carry the hard-bitten spirit of the Rust Belt into their music, channeling the blue-collar grit of their Ohio city into straightforward, unadorned metal. Active since 2017, they represent the workhorse side of the regional heavy metal underground.

Cincinnati's Mournblade fuse the soaring hooks of power metal with the propulsive aggression of thrash, arriving on the scene in 2023 with an energetic attack that nods to classic US metal traditions.