Out4Blood didn’t start with some grand plan—it started out of boredom and a desire to spend more time together.
“Out4Blood happened from just wanting to hang out more often with our friends,” guitarist Jake Watson tells No Echo. At the time, he and drummer Alex were playing in Rot, a band that had slowed down. “Alex told me he wanted to start something fresh that had no expectations and could play as often as we wanted, so we started writing.”
Things came together fast. After locking in a few songs, the band reached out to vocalist Kyle, who had just relocated to Minneapolis from Jacksonville. “We sent Kyle the tracks, and within a few days he was at my house recording—it clicked right away, and we knew that was our guy,” Watson tells No Echo. Guitarist Kris soon followed, a longtime friend with deep roots in the Midwest scene. “We’ve known him for over a decade, so for us there was no question,” Watson says.
From there, Out4Blood wasted no time getting active. The band self-released a three-song demo in early 2023 and handed out 100 CDs at LDB Fest before even playing their first show. That debut gig sparked another shift. “Our friend Derek came up to Alex after the set and said he wanted to play bass,” Watson tells No Echo. “We talked for five minutes, and that night I switched to second guitar.”
Musically, Out4Blood live somewhere in between lanes—and they’re perfectly fine with that. “We sit somewhere between metalcore and hardcore, but we’re not really trying to stay cemented into either,” Alex tells No Echo. Fast, chaotic parts collide with breakdowns, two-steps, and heavier grooves, all shaped by a wide range of influences. “We all grew up on different stuff—metalcore, hardcore, nu metal, hip-hop—so it all bleeds together,” he says, citing Death Threat, Hatebreed, System of a Down, and Westside Gunn. “At the end of the day, we care more about how something feels than what it technically falls under. If the riff hits, it stays.”
That approach carries into the band’s just-released full-length, The Price of Power. “It’s the closest we’ve gotten to exactly what this band is supposed to sound like,” the band tells No Echo. To get there, they removed themselves from distractions entirely. “We spent a week in a remote log cabin… hauled all of our gear out there and just focused on the album.”
The band handled engineering and mixing themselves before sending it to Rick Carson at Make Believe Studios for mastering. Lyrically, the record leans into heavier themes. “The vast majority of the record was conceptualized around the seven deadly sins and applying them to modern-day issues,” vocalist Kyle tells No Echo. Each track ties into those ideas—power, corruption, and the personal toll they take. “Power comes with a price of sin… this album is about sitting with that reality,” he says.
Back home, the Minneapolis scene has been a major part of the band’s momentum. “The scene is in a really good place lately,” bassist Derek tells No Echo. “Shows have been consistent, people are packing out rooms… and there’s a good mix of newer bands and older bands holding it down.” Events like Snow and Flurry Fest have helped solidify the city as a Midwest hardcore hub, with bands like xSeraphx, Sleeper Cell, Fear the Dark, Grotesque Abdication, Awaiting Eschiel, and Why Not pushing things forward.
Oh yeah, The Price of Power should be coming out on vinyl in the coming months.
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