One of my most awaited shows in 2025: Last time Bloodywood toured in Europe I missed them and I regretted it dearly. The Nu Metal band from New-Delhi were far on top of my must-see list for a while now. I have a soft spot for Folk Metal and since Bloodywood includes a nice amount of folkish elements in their music – and since I’m a sucker for Bollywood movies – they’re exactly my jam. So I bought tickets as soon as the tour was announced and here’s my little opinion on the show.
Demonic Resurrection
Bloodywood took their good time with announcing supports for their tour. Openers were Demonic Resurrection, an Indian Black/Death Metal band from Mumbai. And while I get why they were part of the line-up (I’m all in for bringing along other bands from your home country to give them a chance to conquer the world) I personally think they weren’t the best match.
I stood quite far at the back of the room and had a good view over the audience and I would say that they didn’t really catch the audience’s attention that much. My very personal guess would be that this was mainly because Black/Death Metal didn’t quite fit in with Bloodywood’s very danceable sound, neither did they really match with the second band of the night, Calva Louise. Demonic Resurrection stood out because their sound was heavier, darker, generally … slower.
Given the fact that I’m not that much into Black/Death Metal anymore, I even liked them and their performance was good. Basically the best thing about their show was the great humour of their singer. Each time he spoke between the songs was a little highlight because he was super charming. But musically I didn’t really felt warmed up for the party that awaited me with Bloodywood.
I’d love to see them again in a different setting and I’m kinda thankful that Bloodywood took them along to show the world more of India’s metal music scene, but for me they just weren’t it that night.
Calva Louise
I’ve never heard of Calva Louise before. I was impressed when they introduced themselves as international band with members from Venezuela, France and New Zealand, although they’re basically British based. Very impressive. Their singer Jess had a great voice and I generally liked their sound. They gave me a bit of a Poppy-ish vibe, although they were by far less chaotic and unpredictable than Poppy’s music.
I had a good time with their music, you could easily nod and dance along or even mosh a pit. There was a bit of an electronic / dance vibe to their sound and I’d say they have a lot of potential. They also played a few unreleased songs that sounded quite nice. Yet they couldn’t fully convince me yet. Throughout their set I started wondering for how long they’ve been playing together because to me personally, their set partly seemed a little unexperienced and slightly insecure? I can’t really put it into words. Also the fact that the set was almost half unreleased songs was surprising to me. So I was even more surprised to find out that their Spotify history goes back until 2017. I had expected a much younger, much newer band.
So not sure what to think of them. I enjoyed them, but they didn’t get me super excited.
Bloodywood
Finally it was time for Bloodywood and after all the waiting I was even more excited for them than before. And they delivered! Their stage energy was BOOM. After an intro they opened the set with Dana Dan, which was already a wild start. The thing about Bloodywood’s music is that, just like Bollywood songs, their sound is extremely danceable, so I personally gave everything I had that night and even more. And so did both the rest of the crowd as well as the band. There was a huuuge mosh pit, circle pits, a wall of death and all that to the sound of Indian folk instruments, while the crowd sang along loudly.
Their set included their latest releases Nu Delhi, Tadka and Bekhauf and, besides songs from their first album, an unreleased track from their album Nu Delhi (Halla Bol), which got me even more excited for the new album. The set was a bit about an hour long and I wished a little it would’ve been longer. It was also stretched a little by speeches between the songs and a very warm introduction-and-thank-you round about their crew and the individual band members.
Intro
Dana Dan
Nu Delhi
Aaj
Tadka
Jee Veerey
Bekhauf
Machi Bhasad
Halla Bol
Gaddaar
Speaking of speeches: I don’t think I’ve ever been to a concert that felt as welcoming, heartwarming and empowering as this one. If you’re familiar with Bloodywood you might know that societal issues, equality or mental health play a huge role in their music, which was also reflected in their words between the songs. So there was not only incredibly powerful music, but they also spoke incredibly powerful words. It felt like a warm shower and I left the venue with a warm, positive feeling after the concert.
Not gonna lie, the Bloodywood-set is already running for „Best show in 2025“ and I can highly recommend seeing them live. It was an incredible experience and I can’t wait for them to come back.