Just when you think you’ve heard everything a genre has to offer, a band comes along to open a wormhole into a whole new world and such a band arrives in the shape of Bloodywood. Coming to prominence via a series of YouTube videos, the earth really started moving for this crew when they dropped a cover of ‘Ari Ari (Indian Street Metal)’ in 2018. The intervening years have found them honing their craft, releasing a string of well-received singles which lead to their third album, Nu Delhi. Featuring eight tracks that stroll with nu metal swagger, this is an album that’s sure to propel the band to new heights.
As Black Sabbath were influenced by their Luftwaffe-scarred, post-industrial surroundings, so Bloodywood have drawn their sound from the cultural melting pot that is the megacity Delhi. Subsequently, opening track ‘Halla Bol’ is an amalgamation of the antiquated and the modern, East and West, metal, folk and rap. It’s a heady mixture and it swings as such. Bold, brash and bombastic, ‘Halla Bol’ is a speaker melter and one that immediately gets in the listener’s face. This is undoubtedly a metal album, but Bloodywood bring a previously unheard freshness to proceedings. It comes from a kind of cultural assertion; the band often sing in their native tongue and those beats are unmistakably Indian. In fact, those beats seem perfect for the pit and ensures that ‘Halla Bol’ comes certified “mosh friendly”. It (like the whole album) is certain to ignite crowds wherever it is unleashed and Raoul Kerr’s quick fire raps will only pour fuel on the fire.
I’ve always had a fondness for Indian culture, thanks in no small part to Krishnacore bands such as 108 and Shelter, yet because most of these bands originated in the West there always seemed a touch of appropriation going on. However, Bloodywood are the real deal and they bring their metal with an authentic Indian edge and that makes tracks such as ‘Dhadak’ love letters to their home town, and they’re representing not only their own metal culture, but Indian music in general. However, the band are willing to look beyond their own boundaries and a collaboration with Japanese kawaii metal band BABYMETAL works rather well. The lithe Japanese voices contrast well with the weighty Indian and the two turn ‘Bekhauf’ into a wrecking ball of a song.
The band’s sophomore album Rakshak achieved all sorts of plaudits and broke through so many barriers that Nu Delhi has a lot to live up to. It sounds as if the band have revelled in the challenge and have stepped up to the plate with their latest release. Nu Delhi works because the band aren’t resting on past glories, in a case of fortune favouring the brave the band are facing down the future…and the future better watch out.
- Nu Delhi is released via Fearless Records on 21st March 2025.
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Track List:
1. Halla Bol
2. Hutt
3. Dhadak
4. Bekhauf (feat. BABYMETAL)
5. Kismat
6. Daggebaaz
7. Tadka
8. Nu Delhi
