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.

Columbus, Ohio's Sanguisugabogg have brought a gleefully grotesque, slam-influenced approach to death metal that revels in absurdity and extremity with equal enthusiasm, earning a deal with Century Media Records on the strength of their viral momentum. Their debut 'Tortured Whole' and follow-up 'Homicidal Ecstasy' deliver lurching, downtuned brutality drenched in toilet humor and over-the-top gore, channeling the spirit of early Cannibal Corpse through a distinctly modern, meme-savvy sensibility. Their rapid rise from underground slam oddity to festival headliner reflects the new generation's appetite for death metal that refuses to take itself too seriously.

Parma, Ohio's Sanhedrin have been pursuing death metal with no-frills directness since 2015, building in the industrial shadow of Cleveland's storied heavy music history. Their approach favors blunt force over ornamentation — death metal as practiced by a band that has no interest in softening the genre's essential violence.

Cincinnati, Ohio's Scab Hag formed in 2021 and carved out a niche in straightforward, no-frills death metal in the classic mold — grimy riffs, guttural vocals, and a sound that doesn't reach for complexity so much as it reaches for your throat. Their name suggests both ugliness and irreverence, two qualities that map cleanly onto the music.

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Dayton, Ohio's Scrotal Erosion arrived in 2024 trafficking in goregrind and death metal with the kind of grotesque specificity that the gore-adjacent subgenre demands — absurdist extremity, medical-horror song concepts, and a sound that prioritizes repulsiveness as an aesthetic virtue. Dayton has a quietly rich tradition of underground metal and hardcore, and Scrotal Erosion continues that tradition in its most extreme, least marketable form. New to the scene but clearly committed to the bit.

Akron's Self Loathing formed in 2018 and operate at the volatile intersection of death metal and hardcore punk, bringing the blunt-force aggression of the latter to the low-end brutality of the former. The band's crossover approach is rooted in the Rust Belt tradition of music that doesn't ask permission — short, crushing, and direct. They're part of a small but committed Ohio underground scene that treats genre boundaries as obstacles to be demolished.