Don’t add Bloodywood to your list of bands you could have seen in a small club before they become huge. You’ll regret it.
Local 506 is a 250-person capacity showroom in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. While small in physical size, Local 506 has hosted larger-than-life touring, local, and up-and-coming musicians on its stage for over 40 years. Bloodywood stopped by for the third stop of their Nine Inch Naans Tour, the band’s first tour of the United States. Hopefully, this is the first of many tours for this very talented young metal band from New Delhi, India.
Opening band A Killer’s Confession is fronted by Waylon Reavis who previously provided vocals for Mushroomhead for over ten years. Waylon is a truly exceptional vocalist and for 45 minutes delivered a high-quality set built that showcased his talent as a headline caliber performer. Made up in aggressive face paint and pitch black contact lenses, Waylon added a raw and aggressive layer to his voice he keeps in check on his albums. David Draiman is a voice to compare Waylon with but Waylon’s performance felt like he had something to prove and he pushed himself to reach a level of intensity that was second to none. During the band’s closing song, a cover of “Roots Bloody Roots” by Sepultura, Waylon screamed and sang so hard he left no doubt he’s a force on a mission. Add in a stage dive into the hands of coaxing fans, Waylon and the entire A Killer’s Confession band succeeded in introducing themselves to a new and certainly growing fanbase.
Bloodywood is the result of guitarist, flutist, and composer Karan Katiyar joining forces with vocalist Jayant Bhadula initially for the purpose of “destroying pop songs.” They found an audience by posting videos on the Internet of their metal covers of popular Bollywood and pop songs. Since then, Bloodywood has established themselves as one of the very few metal bands originating from India, one of the even fewer Indian metal bands to tour the US, and the first Indian metal band ever to release an album that charted on Billboard. Their album Rakshak charted at number 95 on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart, hit number 10 for album downloads in the United Kingdom, and singles from the album total to multiple millions of digital streams.Rap vocalist, Raoul Kerr, was unfortunately ill and unable to perform this evening which did leave a gap in Bloodywood’s sound. However, perhaps determined to overcome adversity, Jayant delivered his vocals and screams that, in a word, were terrifying. Guttural and almost inhuman, Jayant filled gaps left open by Raoul’s absence and transformed their typical nu metal sound into something much closer to a death metal vibe. The audience was clearly disappointed with Raoul’s absence but the band’s modified performance was nothing less than stellar.
What didn’t change from Bloodywood’s past performances was the limitless energy the entire band pumped out on stage for the entirety of their set. The room was sweltering hot but that didn’t stop everyone on stage from jumping about and headbanging constantly. The band tore through most of the songs from their recently released album Rakshak and introduced each song with the meaning of the lyrics and the message they want everyone to hear. Bloodywood has their sights set on something bigger than just being an amazing metal band, they want to use their platform to create meaningful and long-overdue social changes.
Mosh pits frequently came alive, especially when familiar songs “Dana Dan” and “Machi Bhasad” came up in the setlist. Bloodywood is clearly a metal band but their infusion of metal with native Indian instrumentation and sounds transforms the genre. Bloodywood has the potential to make the world a smaller and more connected place through their uniquely blended approach to metal music.
This will be the last tour Bloodywood plays to small room audiences, they are destined for so much more.
BLOODYWOOD
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