Bloodywood, torchbearers and metal barrier-breakers hailing from India, share the new video today for new single "Bekhauf," featuring fellow international superstars BABYMETAL. Watch the video below.
An incredible cultural collision takes place on "Bekhauf." The track layers Bloodywood's gloriously gruff vocals and Indian folk sonic nuances with the sweetly melodic vocals of Japan's BABYMETAL. The hyper fast riffing and ferocious breakdown will incite moshpits and non-stop headbanging. Ultimately, the song reminds us that hard rock/metal is a universal language and welcoming to all styles, ethnicities, and genders. And that's truly a beautiful and brutal thing!
"'Bekhauf' means 'fearless' in Hindi," explains the band. "It was born out of the realization that fear can be seen as a choice, and that choice is our own. It's about using this knowledge to take control of our fears and eliminate the side of them that holds us back."
Bloodywood continue, "It also marks our first ever collaboration. We've been waiting to find the right artists to work with and when the possibility of the BABYMETAL collab emerged, we knew it was time. We were all fans of their music, but were still surprised by the level of synergy we managed to achieve on the track. It's a trilingual song and features English, Hindi. and Japanese, BABYMETAL even sang some parts in Hindi. but we think you can feel the message regardless and that's a testament to this synergy."
The band finishes, "The fact that we tied it all together by creating an anime/video game hybrid video pushes everything to the next level. This is a piece of Asian metal history and we're proud to share it with the world."
Bloodywood also announced this week the continuation of their RETURN OF THE SINGH tour their May 2025 Japanese tour, with pre-sale tickets going on sale this week. Dates are here.
This is a continuation of their rapidly selling extensive UK and European tour in February and March 2025. All dates are here.
Bloodywood — comprised of Karan Katiyar, Jayant Bhadula, and Raoul Kerr — craft hard-hitting yet modern folk metal sound has made the world sit up, take notice, show up, and sing along. The band recently announced its worldwide signing to Fearless Records and shared the music/video for the song "Nu Delhi," which offers some insight into the band's history, as well as its home city. Watch the video for the trilingual track, which has accrued over 3 million streams in just 7 weeks, here.
Bloodywood first caught the attention of the internet with their YouTube channel, when multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer Katiyar and vocalist Bhadula were about to get deadly serious about their craft. Bolstered by the support they were getting, Bloodywood dropped "Ari Ari" in 2018. A Punjabi folk song made famous in the early 2000s remix boom in India by hip-hop act Bombay Rockers, Bloodywood pushed it further with help from the gritty New Delhi-based conscious hip-hop artist/rapper Raoul Kerr.
With the additional accessibility from Kerr's English rap verses, Katiyar's inimitable flute melody, and Bhadula's powerful vocals, the band's first original song "Jee Veerey" dropped in 2018 and brought a flood of praise from around the world. With this release, the band discovered its sound and message. Songs like "Endurant" (an anti-bullying anthem) and "Machi Bhasad (Expect A Riot)" arrived in 2019 saw Bloodywood level up, adding Kerr as a full-time member. "We're trying to push the limits of the impact that music can have on the world," says Kerr. "Whether it's the battles within or the fight for a better world, our sound is meant to bring everyone together and win."
Joined on tour by drummer Vishesh Singh (a fixture since their early days), bassist Roshan Roy (a seasoned figure in New Delhi's indie music scene) and dhol player Sarthak Pahwa, Bloodywood took their music out of the studio and to concerts across Europe, UK and Russia for their first-ever tour. The sold-out "Raj Against The Machine Tour" in 2019 was proof that an Indian metal band’s global online following would convert into packed venues.
Even a global pandemic couldn't stop the juggernaut that was Bloodywood — "Yaad," released in early 2020 had deepened their storytelling. The band followed it up in late 2021 with "Gaddaar," taking aim at how politicians use religion to gain votes. Songs like "Aaj" and "Dana Dan" (the latter rallying against rape culture) built up to the release of their debut self-released album Rakshak in 2022. It was important to them to keep fighting the good fight, whether it was against one's closely-held inner demons or the decaying standards of global governance. It earned them a nomination for Best International Breakthrough Artist at the Heavy Music Awards in 2022.
Bloodywood went on to perform to packed crowds and at major global festivals — from Lollapalooza India, Download Festival, Bloodstock (UK), Hellfest (France), Summer Breeze (Germany) to Brutal Assault (Czechia), to Fuji Rock (Japan) and American mainstays like Louder Than Life and Aftershock.
In 2024, "Dana Dan" even made it to a pivotal sequence in the Jordan Peele-produced action movie Monkey Man, directed by and starring Dev Patel.
Now, after more than a year of chipping away at their new material, Bloodywood are ready to unleash to the world their second album in the first part of 2025 showing the depth and power of Indian Folk Metal.
