Bloodywood announce their new album ‘NU DELHI’, out in March and share new single ‘TADKA’

Bloodywood, torchbearers and metal barrier-breakers hailing from India, are thrilled to announce their new album NU DELHI, out March 21 via Fearless Records. Pre-order it here. To celebrate the good news, the band has shared the video for new single “TADKA.” Watch it here. Bloodywood will be touring Europe starting next month – check out the dates below!

With “TADKA,” the band offers up another gritty and groove metal anthem with traditional instrumentation. The song packs a nu metal punch, pairing monster truck-sized riffs and hellbound screaming with classic sounds that reflect their culture. Bloodywood walk the line between genres fearlessly and without a net, and the result is a hard rock banger unlike which you’ve heard before. It’s quite a tasty track — literally.

“‘Tadka’ is a metal tribute to Indian food,” the band declares. “The word ‘Tadka’ is a cooking process in Indian cuisine where spices are heated in hot oil or ghee to create a more aromatic flavor… It’s about going the extra mile in the pursuit of a greater flavor.“

The band continues, “The song highlights the multi-faceted chaos of Indian kitchens that are tasked with perfectly executing centuries-old recipes on a daily basis as well as the immense joy they brings to most people. This is a never-ending love story that connects an entire nation. From the fanciest fine dining restaurants to the simplest road side stall, everyone brings something magical to the table, but the undisputed champion of the cuisine is the Indian household kitchen. When you fuse these recipes and techniques with the love of an Indian family home, the result is unbeatable.” It’s the kind of joy that Bloodywood just had to share — so they did.

“Tadka” follows the video for “BEKHAUF,” the band’s collaboration with BABYMETAL, which was lauded by Consequence, Revolver, Brave Words, Rock Sound, Crunchyroll, and more. Watch the video here. It was a true Asian metal cultural collision that grabbed the scene and beyond by the throat and forced the music world to pay attention!

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. Watch the video for the trilingual track, which has accrued over X million streams, here.    

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.