Alice Cooper's Halftime Theatrics Put the Spotlight Back on Ohio's Heavy Metal Showmen
Sunday night, while most of America was watching the Chiefs grind out a 30-27 win over the Raiders, something stranger and more wonderful happened at halftime: Alice Cooper, flanked by guitarist Nita Strauss and drummer Glen Sobel, tore through a three-song set at Allegiant Stadium that reminded everyone why shock rock theater still matters. A few days later, Cooper sat down with CBS Mornings to talk about his new autobiography "Devil On My Shoulder" and the origin of his androgynous, villainous stage persona — telling Anthony Mason he's "always felt like I had to prove myself." That's a hell of a statement from a guy who's been terrifying and delighting audiences for over fifty years, and it's worth sitting with for a minute if you care about the Ohio metal scene.
Because here's the thing: Ohio has never lacked for riffs. What it's always had in shorter supply is character — bands willing to build a world around the music instead of just stacking power chords. Cooper's whole career is a master class in that idea, and it's a good excuse to shine some overdue light on the state's heavy metal and New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal (NWOTHM) underground, a corner of the scene that's been quietly building its own cast of characters while death metal and metalcore hog the regional spotlight.
Ohio's Traditional Heavy Metal Underground Is Building Its Own Mythology
Take Character, a heavy/power metal outfit whose very name feels like a wink at exactly what Cooper was talking about in that interview — the idea that heavy metal has always been as much about persona as it is about tempo and distortion. Or Three, working the doom and heavy metal borderlands where atmosphere and image carry as much weight as the riffs themselves. Then there's the straight-ahead NWOTHM push coming from bands like Prizanor, Tündra, Shanghai, Catch 22, Voidgazer, and Tilt — a full roster chasing that same NWOBHM-via-80s-metal-bands lineage that made Cooper, Priest, and Maiden into icons in the first place.
This is a genre pocket that honestly hasn't gotten its due on this site, and that's on us. But if Alice Cooper — now in his late seventies and still building a halftime show around a character he invented in the late '60s — can keep proving the theatrical, classic-tinged end of heavy metal still has teeth, there's no reason Ohio's traditional metal bands can't be considered right alongside the state's better-covered death metal and metalcore camps when people talk about the best metal bands coming out of the region right now.
The Callous Daoboys Are Already Writing Album Four — What That Means for Ohio's Chaos-Prone Bands
Elsewhere in the world of bands who refuse to sit still, Atlanta mathcore chaos merchants The Callous Daoboys have confirmed they're already deep into writing their fourth album, and they'll be back on tour next month to boot. That's a band that built its entire identity on genre-whiplash — one song veers into breakdown territory, the next into something closer to show-tune theater — and it's a useful reference point for Ohio's own genre-blurring acts.
Progressive-leaning bands like Constricted and the heavy/prog hybrid work coming from Strychnine live in that same willingness-to-get-weird space. The lesson from The Callous Daoboys isn't just that chaos sells — it's that chaos sustained across four albums requires real songwriting discipline underneath it. Worth remembering as more new metal bands 2026 start experimenting with structure instead of just brutality.
Wage War's New Album and the State of Ohio Metalcore
On the metalcore front, Wage War dropped their single "God Complex" ahead of a new full-length out this Friday, and they're hitting the road later this month on a headlining run. It's another reminder that metalcore's commercial engine hasn't slowed down one bit heading into next year's touring cycle — and Ohio has plenty of skin in that game.
The state's metalcore and post-hardcore lineage runs deep, from The Plot In You and Miss May I carrying the genre's more melodic, radio-adjacent wing, to heavier combos like Symphony in Peril and death-metal-adjacent acts like Eternal Void pushing the sound into groove and deathcore territory. Wage War's continued ability to pack rooms is a good sign for anyone in that Ohio pipeline hoping 2026 brings more national tours through the state — keep an eye on upcoming shows as those routing announcements start to firm up.
Anthrax's Deep Cuts and the Case for Ohio Thrash
Metal Injection's rundown of the best deep cut from every Anthrax album is the kind of list that's catnip for thrash diehards, and it's a solid excuse to talk about Ohio's own thrash lineage, which has never gotten the credit it deserves next to the Bay Area and New York scenes. Album is carrying that thrash torch locally right now, working in the same riff-forward, no-frills tradition that made Anthrax's deep cuts worth digging for in the first place. Pair that with the thrash/death/speed hybrid attack of Silent Knight and the heavy/thrash/power crossover of Catch 22, and you've got a genuine thrash underground operating in the state, even if it rarely makes national headlines.
It's also a good moment to tip the cap to Ohio's old-guard death metal lifers who've been putting out deep cuts of their own for decades. Necrophagia remains one of the most important and influential death metal bands to ever come out of this state — a genuine piece of the genre's history whose catalog belongs in any conversation about the best metal albums of all time from the Midwest. Primitive death metal outfits like Caveman and the crushing, old-school attack of Mutilatred keep that lineage alive today, proving Ohio's death metal roots run every bit as deep as its thrash and metalcore scenes.
Amon Amarth's "Slow But Steady" Philosophy Is a Blueprint for Ohio Bands
One of the more quietly instructive headlines this week came from Amon Amarth bassist Ted Lundström, who told KillerTube that the band deliberately avoided chasing overnight success, saying flatly that he never wanted to "be a band that gets big overnight." Thirty-five years later, Amon Amarth is one of the biggest death metal bands on the planet, playing arenas and headlining festivals worldwide — built brick by brick rather than overnight.
That's the kind of patience that doesn't get celebrated enough in a scene obsessed with viral moments and algorithm hits.
For Ohio's death metal underground — a scene packed with bands like Gorotum, Shores of Elysium, Extinction Agenda, and Rotting Mutilation grinding it out at the club level — Lundström's comments are a good reminder that the bands worth watching for metal bands touring 2026 and beyond are often the ones playing the long game, not the ones chasing a single breakout single. If your band is doing that work right now, don't forget you can submit your band to get on our radar.
Symphonic Metal's Big Week: Floor Jansen, Anette Olzon, and Moonspell
Rounding out the week, former and current Nightwish vocalists are both making noise: Floor Jansen detailed her upcoming solo album "Hytress," due January 15, 2027, describing it as a heavier, more personal sound distinct from her main band, while Anette Olzon was spotted performing Nightwish-era songs with a full orchestra and choir in São Paulo. Meanwhile, Portuguese dark metal institution Moonspell announced a massive 2027 European tour celebrating 35 years of the band.
Symphonic and power metal don't dominate Ohio's scene numbers the way death metal does, but the appetite is there — Andromeda and the aforementioned Tündra and Character are proof that grand, orchestral-leaning heavy metal has a home here too, even if it's a smaller one. As international symphonic metal keeps drawing orchestras and choirs into the fold, it wouldn't be surprising to see more Ohio bands lean into that bigger, more theatrical sound in the coming year — following the same instinct that's kept Alice Cooper relevant on a football field in 2026, more than fifty years after he first put on the makeup.
