Dave Mustcomplain Meets If These Trees Could Talk, and Ohio's Heavy Metal Revival Keeps Building
There's a particular kind of validation that comes when a notoriously hard-to-please national critic sits down with a record from your backyard and actually has something to say about it. This week, MetalSucks' recurring Disgruntled Dad Reviews column turned its skeptical eye toward If These Trees Could Talk, the Akron post-metal and post-rock outfit that's spent nearly two decades quietly becoming one of Ohio's most respected instrumental exports. The subject was "The Hidden Hand," and whether Dave Mustcomplain found a way to grumble about it or not almost doesn't matter — the fact that a band from Northeast Ohio's instrumental underground is still commanding this kind of column-inch attention, years into a career built without a vocalist or a single radio single, says everything about how durable that sound has proven to be.
If These Trees Could Talk have always occupied a strange and valuable space in the Ohio metal conversation. They're not death metal, not doom, not thrash — they're closer to the cinematic, crescendo-built tradition of bands like Russian Circles or early Explosions in the Sky, but with enough weight and distortion to earn a spot on any respectable heavy music index. That a MetalSucks scribe known for his skepticism is still engaging with their catalog is a reminder that Ohio's contribution to metal-adjacent music isn't only about blast beats and breakdowns. Sometimes it's about patience, dynamics, and the kind of slow-burn songwriting that rewards a real listen rather than a scroll-through.
Anniversaries, Reissues, and the Weight of Legacy
Zoom out to the national conversation this week and you'll notice a theme: metal is spending a lot of energy looking backward right now. Anthrax is rolling out weekly animated shorts breaking down the artwork for "Cursum Perficio," their long-awaited twelfth album due September 18 via Megaforce in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast in Europe — a promotional strategy that treats the album cover almost like a graphic novel, character by character. Meanwhile, Metal Injection dug into the origin story of Avenged Sevenfold's debut, recorded in eight days on a $2,000 budget, a full 25 years before the band would headline arenas under that now-iconic skull logo. And Machine Head is marking the 15th anniversary of "Unto the Locust" with a limited vinyl and CD reissue, capped at 1,500 copies worldwide.
Three totally different bands, three totally different eras, but the same underlying instinct: metal fans want to understand where the records they love actually came from. It's the same impulse that fuels every "best metal albums of all time" list that gets argued over in comment sections every year, and it's worth remembering that those lists are built one regional scene at a time. Ohio has contributed more to that canon than it usually gets credit for, and the current crop of bands working the state's clubs and DIY spaces are writing the next chapter of that same story, whether or not a major label or a Metal Injection retrospective is watching yet.
Ohio's Heavy Metal and NWOTHM Underground Deserves Its Own Retrospective
Speaking of legacy — Ohio's New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal contingent has been building steadily for a while now, and it's a scene that doesn't get nearly the ink that death metal and hardcore do around here, despite a genuinely strong roster. Arena has been carrying the torch for the more progressive, arena-scaled end of that revival, leaning on soaring vocals and intricate arrangements that owe an obvious debt to 80s metal bands like Queensrÿche and Fates Warning while still sounding like something being made right now, not just copied from a dusty tape. Character occupies similar territory from the power metal side, chasing the kind of triumphant, riff-forward songwriting that made the genre a global phenomenon in the first place.
Those two bands aren't operating in a vacuum, either. Cleveland's Sword and Leather have both been mining classic heavy metal songwriting with an eye toward the genre's golden age, while newer names like Prizanor and Emerald Rage are proof that the speed metal and power metal end of the spectrum still has real momentum in this state. If you're the kind of listener who gravitates toward the best heavy metal songs of the NWOBHM era and wants to know who's carrying that flame in 2026, Ohio's roster is deeper than most out-of-state fans realize. This is exactly the kind of scene that deserves its own feature treatment, and it's one we intend to keep digging into.
The Death Doom Corner Nobody's Covering Yet
On the opposite end of the tempo spectrum, Ohio's death doom contingent has been quietly stacking up a genuinely compelling catalog without much outside attention. Pale Grey Lore and Hope Hole both work the slower, heavier end of doom, built around the kind of crushing repetition and atmosphere that rewards patience over instant gratification, while Atma blends black metal's rawness into that same doom foundation. It's a corner of the state's scene that hasn't gotten the blog coverage it deserves, and given how much national attention doom has been getting lately as legacy acts navigate lineup upheaval and health scares, it feels like the right moment for Ohio listeners to give these bands a closer look. If your Spotify algorithm has been feeding you a steady diet of funeral doom and death-doom hybrids this year, these are the local names worth seeking out before everyone else catches on.
Beyond the Riffs: What Else Is Moving
A few other national stories are worth a passing mention for how they ripple outward into the broader heavy music conversation Ohio bands are a part of. Wargasm signing to Hopeless Records and dropping their new single "Get Down" is a reminder that the industrial-tinged, genre-blending side of heavy music is still finding real label support, a trend that should encourage Ohio's own boundary-pushing acts working outside strict metal lines. Eyes Set To Kill's newly announced "Guilty Pleasures Tour" with Sicksense and Twist It, built entirely around fan-favorite deep cuts, is a smart model that regional promoters booking metal concerts near me could stand to borrow — give the die-hards what they actually want to hear instead of just promoting the newest single. And the ugly, ongoing spat between Matt Zane and Edsel Dope over the Wayne Static documentary is an unfortunate but useful reminder of how messy legacy disputes can get once a scene loses one of its own; it's the kind of cautionary tale that should push touring bands everywhere, Ohio's included, to get their business affairs in order early.
Meanwhile, the festival circuit keeps expanding its footprint for 2026, with Decibel's Metal and Beer Fest announcing a Denver edition featuring Pig Destroyer, Cro-Mags, Intronaut, and Black Breath, alongside a Down and Suicidal Tendencies co-headline. It's a lineup that underscores how much cross-pollination there is right now between death metal, hardcore, and crossover thrash on the same bill — exactly the kind of genre-blurring approach that Ohio bands like Cabal, 200 Stab Wounds, and Caveman have built their own reputations on locally. As metal bands touring 2026 start locking in routes, don't be surprised if a few of these national names swing through the Midwest, and don't sleep on the mid-size venues around Cleveland and Columbus, either — MGM Northfield Park concerts have quietly become a solid stop for touring rock and metal packages looking for a room between the arena circuit and the club grind.
Keep an Eye on What's Coming
Between a national critic engaging seriously with an Akron post-metal band, the NWOTHM torch being carried by acts like Arena and Character, and a death doom underground that's overdue for its own spotlight, Ohio's scene has plenty going on beneath the surface right now. If you're booking shows, releasing a record, or just trying to get your band's name in front of the people paying attention to this stuff, check our upcoming shows listings for what's on the calendar around the state, and if you don't see your band in our index yet, submit your band so we can start covering you the way we're covering everyone mentioned above.