BLOODYWOOD - “Nu Dehli”
Written by: Tom Wilson | Monday 10th March 2025
“…This doesn’t just defy the sophomore curse, it soars straight over it.”
This is not a trend. This is not a fad. This is not a viral sensation. BLOODYWOOD first made waves online for their seamless integration of Indian musical culture with metal in the land before COVID, but we’re still talking about them in 2025 because they’re a damn good metal band, and they have just served up the second course, called Nu Dehli. Let’s tuck in!
I’m not normally a gambling man, but I’ll put a wager up front: if Halla Bol isn’t the intro for their tour, I’ll eat my hat. Full of malevolent undertones and tribal rhythms, the moody intro explodes into pounding riffage and perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the record. As with their debut Rakshak, bilingualism is not required, though it is hilarious to be banging your head to a chorus like Tadka only to find out that it’s about how much they love their mum’s cooking. Hutt is a furious gang-chant that has been turned into an entire song, and if you can go the whole track without throwing a fist into the air, you’re a stronger person than me. Bekhauf is a futuristic mix of guitars and synths that would be the perfect backing track to the next Street Fighter game, so it’s not surprising in the slightest when the girls from BABYMETAL show up on the chorus to give it some anime flavouring. Kismat opens with a funky street beat that wouldn’t be out of place on a PANJABI MC record, before spreading its wings for a soaring metal chorus. The cultural flourishes sprinkled through each banger are things of beauty to be treasured, like a flower growing between the treads of a tank, and the production sounds like a million bucks.
BLOODYWOOD aren’t messing with the sound that people first fell in love with. Every track on Nu Dehli is a variation of slamming-guitars-with-dhol (the iconic double-headed Indian drum), but it’s the quality control and passion that really makes it stand out as a record. If your jaw dropped the first time you saw the Gaddar video, you’re going to love this. Thousands of years of Indian culture meets bleeding-edge metal, this doesn’t just defy the sophomore curse, it soars straight over it. Nu Dehli takes everything they did right on Rakshak and does it even better. All hail BLOODYWOOD!
Nu Dehli is out March 21st via Fearless Records. Pre-order here.
