Words & Pictures Adrian Hextall / (C) MindHex Media
When you blend New Delhi with Nu-Metal, you get ‘Nu-Delhi’ and that is why the Indian folk metal explosion of Bloodywood found themselves heading a sold-out UK tour that culminated in a packed 2,500 capacity Forum in Kentish Town. It’s amazing to think that only a couple of years ago they were headlining venues like The Dome in Tufnell Park which holds around 600 people. With just one album to their name ‘Rakshak’ they’d managed to deliver the perfect blend of traditional Indian folk music and overlaid a nu-metal sound akin to Linkin Park at their finest with a bucket of spice thrown in for good measure thanks to the powerhouse vocals of Jayant Bhadula. His voice projects so much energy, he could probably provide electricity to his home country in a time of crisis.
Before the band hit the stage for what would be a relatively short 65-70 minute set, we were graced with performances from Demonic Resurrection and Calva Louise. The former have a band name that belies how pleasant and welcoming they are. As Uriah Heep once told us, “very ‘eavy, very ‘umble” and that sums up Demonic Resurrection perfectly. Heavy, intense, the ideal warm up for what was to come later and during the spoken moments when they addressed the crowd, the nicest guys. If you need to take a band home to convince your Nan that metal is a safe space, pick these lads!
Calva Louise took things up a notch with a perfect blend of screamo, techno and industrial sounds that does for EDM and industrial what Bloodywood are doing for Indian folk and nu metal. The genre blending and twisting soundscapes coming off the stage during Calva Louise’s set makes them go on the list of ‘Brilliant Support Acts to Check Out Further in 2025’.
And so to Bloodywood. The knowingly titled ‘Return of the Singh’ tour ended its UK run in London and with the various reports on the grapevine suggesting that we were in for a treat, the atmosphere in the room was that of a sweaty bee-hive on pollen collection day. When the band burst on stage and launched into ‘Dana Dan’ (a track that has recently been heard on Dev Patel’s ‘Monkey Man’ movie soundtrack) this crowd began to chant and bounce as one. And for the following hour, they did not stop. Bloodywood don’t do ballads and neither did the crowd. With everybody in the venue punching the air with their fists and screaming along to the Hindi song’s hook “Dan! Dan! Dan!” it seemed that all of a sudden we were fluent in a (sic) ‘Nu-Delhi’ language.
I’m as guilty as the next person of this and have happily sung (in the confines of my own car, when alone, on the road and not at traffic lights – as is the correct protocol in England) along to ‘Aaj’ and new single ‘Bekhauf’ without a care in the world. It sounds right to me, well close enough… hey I’m trying!
Highlights for me included the two aforementioned songs. The former, ‘Aaj’ the breakthrough single that contained the perfect blend of rap, rock, and roars and seamlessly blended it with Indian folk music, is a go-to track for me and remains a major highlight from that brilliant debut. In the same vein, ‘Bekhauf’ whose studio version sees Babymetal added to the mix burst out of the PA like it was destined for the heavens. With a crowd lapping up every moment, singing along without necessarily having a clue what they were saying (but when did that ever stop a Rammstein crowd and I think they’ve done OK), it’s pretty obvious that come album three, Bloodywood will be headlining arenas. If you were lucky enough to catch them at a smaller venue just a few years ago, treasure those memories as I think it’ll be some time (if ever) before they return to them.
As they might say in their Hindi lyrics, “??? ???? ????? ??” (yahee unakee niyati hai) – “This Is Their Destiny”.
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