Bloodywood, torchbearers and metal barrier-breakers hailing from India, have released their new album NU DELHI, via Fearless Records.
Listen to and get it here.
The band also shared the visualizer for "Kismat." Watch it here.
NU DELHI is a love letter to the band's home region and, to the many shades of hard rock and metal theory music represents. The band frontloads their sonic style with elements of nu metal, modern metalcore, and melodic hard rock, adding plenty of Indian folk elements to keep things unpredictable, thrilling to listen to, and explosive. The end result is a fingerprint -distinct style. Bloodywood fuse so many cultural sounds and styles in their music, and that is why NU DELHI, when all is said and done, will be a global phenomenon.
Check out the band's recent feature at The Guardian here.
Bloodywood will return to North America this summer, touring with BABYMETAL. "BEKHAUF," the band's collaboration with BABYMETAL, was lauded as a "cross-cultural folk-metal combo" (Revolver); "a marvelous collision of styles" (Knotfest); "an absolute epic track" (Consequence); and "insanely good" (The Charismatic Voice). Watch the video here. It serves as a true Asian metal cultural collision that grabbed the scene and beyond by the throat and forced the music world to pay attention. Now, they will hit the road together for a further global metal expansion.
BLOODYWOOD ON TOUR:
WITH BABYMETAL + JINJER:
6/13— Houston, TX
6/14— Irving, TX
6/17— Tampa, FL
6/18— Atlanta, GA
6/20— Charlotte, NC
6/21— Baltimore, MD
6/24— New York, NY
6/25— Boston, MA
6/27— Uncasville, CT
6/28— Philadelphia, PA
6/30— Laval, QC
7/2— Toronto, ON
7/3— Sterling Heights, MI
7/5— Milwaukee, WI — Summerfest*
7/6— Maryland Heights, MO
7/8— Chicago, IL
7/9— Minneapolis, MN
7/11— Denver, CO
7/14— Vancouver, BC
7/15— Kent, WA
7/17— San Francisco, CA
7/20— Las Vegas, NV
7/21— Salt Lake City, UT
7/23— Phoenix, AZ
ABOUT BLOODYWOOD:
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 previously 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.
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.
