Rock in the Heartland: Midwestern artists define their unique sound

MANSFIELD, OH — The Midwestern states of this great country are known for a lot of things. 

The flat, sometimes-monotonous landscape is home to football enthusiasts, casserole-makers and lots of agriculture. If you listen carefully, you can hear the word “ope” whistling in the wind. 

But for one weekend in July, the state of Ohio (perhaps the most Midwestern state of the whole region) is also host to the Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival — a massive event set to the backdrop of the Ohio State Reformatory. 

The Midwest is often overlooked by most of the country for…well, everything. But the region was an incubator for some of the most innovative hardcore punk rock music, and gave rise to one of the most ubiquitous genres: the aptly-named Midwest Emo sound. 

And considering tens of thousands of people flock to Mansfield, Ohio for the three-day festival featuring 70 different rock bands, the question must be asked: Does the Midwest rock the hardest? 

The question was barely hanging in the air when Dan Janssen, co-founder and general manager of Inkcarceration, answered with a confident “Yes.” 

“Ohio is literally the hub; if you think of the most middle part of the Midwest, that’s us,” Janssen said. “People out here, they love this music, it’s their brand.” 

The Breakdown

Of 70 bands slated to perform at Inkcarceration who had their origins readily available on Google, the Southeast region of the country had the most bands represented with 17. The Midwest came in second at 15 and the Pacific Coast in third with 11. 

California was the single state with the most bands represented at 11. Florida and Ohio tied for second place with eight apiece, and Massachusetts came in third with six. The bands who traveled the farthest came from Canada, France and Australia. 

It makes sense — after all, hardcore originated in the early 1980s, sprouting in underground scenes like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Washington D.C. and New York. Since then, it’s developed a number of derivatives, subgenres and fusions. 

Heavy metal developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with roots in blues, psychedelic and acid rock. Some of the first heavy metal bands in America included Alice Cooper, Kiss, Aerosmith and Van Halen. 

Ohio specifically is considered a major hub in rock and roll history — the state does host the hall of fame, after all. And the genre was profoundly influenced by African Americans in the Midwest. 

According to Strange Reaction, a publication dedicated to punk rock and other underground music subcultures, Midwestern hardcore was one of the most important (and underrated) subgenres of American punk rock in the 1980s. 

In fact, the early 1990s saw the pioneering of metalcore — a fusion of extreme metal and hardcore punk — and one of the earliest scenes was nearby in Cleveland. 

Deep Roots

Steve Felton remembers the Cleveland music scene from the 1990s very well. 

It was there in October 1993 that he first introduced his onstage alter-ego “Skinny” as part of the band Mushroomhead, an avant-garde metal band known for their elaborate costumes and experimental sound. 

Felton said the Rust Belt bands who were touring through brutal Midwestern winters back then have a certain tenacity to them. 

“All those bands that were out there touring through the snow, those are the types of bands that have a sound that’s got determination to it,” he said. 

“It’s a ‘never-say-die’ type of energy to it, that punk rock angst and attitude that comes with the artists instead of, say, a certain guitar sound or riff.” 

Christopher Hall, vocalist for the industrial rock band Stabbing Westward from Illinois, said music from more rural parts of the country has a relatable, “meat-and-potatoes” quality. 

“When I listen to a poser New York punk band that’s trying to sound like Iggy Pop in 1970, there’s a certain pretentiousness to it that doesn’t feel real,” he said. “But when you hear a band that grew up in a smaller town, it’s kind of like country music in a way. It has roots that are deep.”

Stabbing Westward started as a duo in 1985 with just Hall and Walter Flakus, covering pop songs from The Police and Sammy Hagar. Flakus said the band truly found its sound after being drawn to the rhythmic, aggressive sounds of the Wax Trax! industrial scene. 

“I think the music that you listened to when you’re in high school or early college years is the music that sticks with you forever,” he said. 

Despite an ever-evolving menu of influences, the group always came back to a darker sound, and has stayed loyal to its roots. 

“Things on the coast change every two weeks,” Hall said. “People are constantly jumping from one trend to another, and in the Midwest we just do what we do.” 

Technology Trend

Andrew Wetzel, percussionist for the Columbus-native band Attack Attack!, was more diplomatic in his answer on Midwestern rock. 

“It’s a very difficult question to answer without offending anybody,” he said with a laugh. “It’s highly subjective, I mean what are the criteria for rocking harder than anybody else?” 

Formed in 2005, Attack Attack! first came about in the era of MySpace. Wetzel described a “healthy DIY” scene in the Midwest that made it easy to tour, rally an audience and meet other bands in the genre. 

“We definitely took it for granted, because I don’t think it’s like that now,” he said. “The soil is a lot harder for stuff to be planted in.” 

However, the advantage that this new era of rock has is the invention of the internet.

“If you’re just browsing through different stuff, you can hear so much music constantly,” Wetzel said. “I feel like that causes all of us to adapt really quickly, whereas in the past it would take longer for artists to hear the same amount of music.” 

Felton also described a merging of sound in the current music scene, as opposed to a distinct East Coast or West Coast vibe. 

“There were only so many popular bands in the 90’s that had a certain heaviness to them; now as fast as you can type you can find a band,” he said. “And what a blessing because there is so much talent out there, and there probably always was, but we just never had a way to access it.” 

Technology certainly played a major role in the debut of Widow7, a modern rock band formed in 2021 that gained national attention when they appeared on the Twitch channel “That Space Zebra Show” hosted by Danny Wimmer Presents. 

Vocalist Mark Leon said the band being from Des Moines, Iowa has a bit of added pressure, thanks to it being the birthplace of the heavy metal band Slipknot. 

“One of the biggest metal bands in the world came out of Des Moines, so it feels like you’re held to a little bit of a higher standard,” Leon said. 

Still, despite the undeniable influence of Slipknot, Leon was hesitant to define the Midwestern genre. 

“I feel like it’s just up to the individual playing,” he said. “It’s like rock itself, it’s all characters. So it’s hard to fit that into an overall thing.” 

Future Plans  

Just like the view of a cornfield on a drive down a Midwestern highway, sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Wetzel said thanks to the internet, even their older records are still popular among fans in their teens and early twenties. 

“Obviously record sales aren’t really much of a thing anymore, and everything is so highly digitized — it’s all algorithms and social media — and it’s getting super fast-paced.

“But while all those things have changed, it really seems that the way people latch onto our music, and the age range, is somehow staying consistent.” 

The internet is why The Beatles are still considered the best-selling music act of all time, with an estimated 600 million units sold worldwide. In fact, if you ask Dan Janssen, it was The Beatles who released the first metal song. 

“If you look back to the White Album by The Beatles, they had a song called Helter Skelter, and it was really heavy,” he said. “It’s got Paul McCartney screaming on the vocals. It sounds like a song that if you put it out today, it would be heavy metal.” 

Janssen alluded to potential future music festivals that would explore other genres. But for now, he’s happy to host one of Ohio’s major rock festivals in Mansfield, Ohio — for a wholly Midwestern audience. 

“Metal music in general really is like blue collar, hard-working, middle America,” he said. “This is a community, and metal music just makes them go hard and unleash that stress and anger, and then they help each other up.” 

In their second-consecutive year at Inkcarceration, Felton pointed out another audience who probably appreciates the genre. 

“You know, there’s an operating prison right down the street that can probably hear the music loud and clear for the whole weekend,” he said. “So I’m guessing those guys look forward to it just as much as the rest of the people in the audience.”