What began with parody metal covers of pop songs on YouTube has since evolved into a legacy of breaking barriers and carrying the torch for cultural representation and enduring impact.
Forming a decade ago, New Delhi-hailing heavies Bloodywood have undergone a staggering metamorphosis over the past 10 years, starting life as a two-piece band and releasing 2017’s cover compilation Anti-Pop Vol. 1 before expanding their lineup and pivoting over to originals. And the rest, loudly and proudly, became history.
Becoming the first Indian metal band to chart on the US Billboard Charts via their independent 2022 album Rakshak, 2025 saw the band ink a deal with Fearless Records after significant label interest, resulting in 2025’s full-length Nu Delhi which showcased Bloodywood’s ferocity and maturity against a vibrant backdrop that proudly celebrated their cultural roots and social conscience.
Already renowned as one of India’s most successful musical exports, Bloodywood continue to take the world by storm, commanding a formidable global following. Armed with heaving metal hues and native instrumentation like the flute and the dhol, and a seamless blend of Punjabi, Hindi and English, the group have wowed crowds at the likes of Download Festival and Louder Than Life amongst a horde of other performances in their wake. In 2026, Bloodywood will tick off yet another continent from their touring bucket list when they make their Australian live performance debut this month, supporting Japanese sensations BABYMETAL alongside Magnolia Park. And for vocalist and rapper Raoul Kerr, it’s a visit that has been a very long time coming.
“We’re equally as excited as the fans when it comes to the level of hype going into these shows,” Kerr shares over a Zoom during the midst of Holi, India’s vibrant Festival of Colours. “Our audience and our supporters in Australia belong to a long list of people who have supported us from the start, from the very early days when we were making cover songs on YouTube all the way through to our first original releases. It’s always been “come to Australia” in the comments, Australia has always been representing. The others on the list are Canada and Latin America, especially Brazil. But this is the first time we get to visit one of these countries, to see people who have been so passionate and so supportive.
“We’ve signed to a label now, but we made our name as an independent band, so we were very much created by the power of the people on the internet,” Kerr continues, “and Australia has always been a part of that. And to do it with BABYMETAL is also super exciting because we had an amazing dream-like, cinematic, movie-worthy run with them over our summer. There’s definitely a lot of synergy between our bands and even our audiences. It’s going to be a hell of a time, I’m so excited.”
Tone Deaf: You kicked off 2026 playing Lollapalooza India, and also supporting Linkin Park in your motherland, a band who are also currently in Australia right now. Setlist-wise, Bloodywood have some extra songs to weave into the set now after the release of your album Nu Delhi last year. Without giving everything away, what can Aussie fans expect from a live Bloodywood show in 2026?
Kerr: Because it’s a support set, it’s not our full-length set, what we’ve done is just pack the most hardcore songs into it. It’s actually harder than our main set in the way that it’s just nonstop, it’s like hitting NOS from the moment you say go and watching that car fly. It’s literally a nonstop set that stays at a hundred, and maybe even goes beyond that when the audience is super into it. That’s definitely something we’re looking forward to, and something the audience can look forward to as well. It’s nonstop action from start to finish, there are no gaps to breathe, it’s literally all action. And I think Australia’s more than ready for it. It is the set to go in with and also to make up for lost time and make it count.
Your 2025 album Nu Delhi was not your first rodeo by any means, but it was your first with Fearless Records. And with the wall-to-wall hits on that one as well, it’s a good problem to have, but how have you approached curating a setlist generally since the album’s release?
If we’re playing a support slot, there are no compromises. It sometimes feels like, “okay, a support set is too short”, and we’ve played 30 minute sets at festivals sometimes as the opening band. But it’s actually a different experience now. The thing about the first album and the second album coming together on stage is that before we had five really awesome songs which were tried and tested, just in terms of seeing what they do when we take them to the stage. We had five songs that we think are super awesome and that the crowd reacts to, and they enjoy as much as we do. Then after making the second album, it’s like we suddenly had five more. It’s literally twice as awesome. As a result, the set was way harder. We were and are super excited about it, but then we were like, “wait, this is catching up to us in a way where we have to be a little more on our toes and be a little more conscious about recovery”. And we’ve always been good about that. We enjoy a drink here and there, but on tour we just don’t because it might compromise our energy on stage and our recovery time. We really saw that paying off recently when we played the new set in particular. Also, we had to take the other step and cut the set down, which is already double in size in terms of energy, but it’s way more hardcore for us because you have to sprint immediately into it instead of building up into it. You just rip in! It’s definitely a different experience, but to us it’s more than worth it.
On the subject of BABYMETAL, you toured with them very recently but it’s not the first time both bands have crossed paths. They featured on Bekhauf on your album last year, and you also featured on Kon! Kon! from their recent album Metal Forth. What’s the creation process like when you’re considering that many vocalists, cultural influences and languages in one song? The end result is nothing short of magical, so clearly there’s an extremely special connection between both bands.
There is very much so, and you hit it right on the head there. It wasn’t as tedious as it sounds. In a way, it might sound like there’s a lot going on, but there is a synergy between both bands. The story behind their feature on Bekhauf is truly a tale of the power of manifestation. Usually our approach is that Karan [Katiyar] will make a bit of the instrumental and if we all like it, then we’ll dive into it and be like, “what’s this song saying to us?”. Then we decide on a theme and we start writing and we bring our parts to the table, put it all together and then build the song from there. With Bekhauf, Karan had made the instrumental and he said to us, “it’d be awesome if BABYMETAL features on this song”. For some context, we knew that we were on BABYMETAL’s radar because someone had sent us a sneaky video of them playing our song Dana Dan as part of their playlist in the buildup to their sets. That was a huge deal because all of us were into BABYMETAL before we even knew that. Then KOBAMETAL, their producer, came to our show in Tokyo and told us that the girls had wanted to come to the show too, but they were all unwell at the time. We knew they were into the music, which was awesome, and we spent some time chilling with KOBA. We didn’t really talk about work or anything like that, he brought us a bunch of gifts and we had a great show in Tokyo as always. That’s where we left it.
But then later on out of the blue, two days after the first conversation we had about Bekhauf and us hearing Karan’s instrumental, we literally got a message from KOBAMETAL saying, “hey, do you want to work on a track together?”. We were like, “we have just the thing for you, our friend!”. We sent it over, we’d written our parts and Karan had some ideas for the BABYMETAL melodies as well. It was actually a simple process, everything was done already. We had some melodies in mind which we sent their way as well and they put in the words. One funny part about that process is that because we’re all huge anime fans, we’ve picked up a bit of the Japanese language as well. So we said to BABYMETAL, “we really want you to say “Sasageyo” in it”. They incorporated it, and they even went the extra step and sang in Hindi. Jayant [Bhadula] sent a pronunciation tutorial over and they did it really well. So it’s actually a trilingual song! It was the icing on the cake, and all of it was just a result of synergy and manifestation.
And because we took the lead on our song and said, “hey this is what we’re looking for,” and they more than delivered, we did the same thing in return with Kon! Kon!. We said, “just tell us what you want and what you’re feeling and we’re going to do our best”. And it turned into what it is.
That touches on something really interesting as well when it comes to a band like Bloodywood, whether you’re singing in Hindi, Punjabi or English; every word and every note resonates, regardless of what language you speak. It transcends so many things, and it showcases that music is the ultimate conduit.
I absolutely agree. That’s exactly what we want it to be.
As a band, you also take metal, nu metal, metalcore, however you want to label it, and you make it completely your own thing. On that topic, in a metal-centric band with Indian folk elements and some rapping as well, courtesy of yourself, in the mix: what music did you grow up listening to, and what would we find you listening to these days?
My music has always been a mixture of metal and hip hop primarily. But at the same time there’s a good percentage left over in terms of other music. It’s not defined by genre, I just look for a central quality in each track. If it speaks to me, I’m going to keep it on my playlist. And that’s why my playlist is all over the place, in the best way.
I love all kinds of music, but the music that I started with, and the music I guess I am most drawn to still would be hip hop and metal. When I started playing with Bloodywood, we went on tour for the first time and it literally felt like Harry Potter getting a Hogwarts letter because I discovered the metal community. And I think the metal community is the best community, if we’re talking about communities defined by a genre. You can just see the fact that metal is so cathartic, and it either attracts or leads to people becoming extremely emotionally intelligent. You have all these badass motherfuckers in the thousands, but they’re all in touch with their emotions, they’re sweet and such nice people. It was definitely a community I was very happy to become part of. But on that note, I joined it pretty late. I don’t know if you’d classify something like Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine or System of a Down as “metal”. To me, metal was stuff like Lamb of God or Slipknot or Cradle of Filth, that was metal to me. I still listen to some of that music, but I never knew that you’d call or could classify those other bands metal as well.
My childhood was stuff like Linkin Park then Eminem, and then everyone together. 50 Cent and System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, the list goes on! But it was definitely very much a mixture of hip hop and metal early on. And at the same time, I also listen to stuff like Billy Joel and Jimi Hendrix, Guns N’ Roses, you name it. I have some EDM tracks on my playlists as well, Swedish House Mafia is on there, Robin Schulz has this one song called Sugar which I really enjoy, and deadmau5 as well. Like I said, my playlist is all over the place, but they’re all songs that have spoken to me. And as a result, I always want to listen to them. I’ll either revisit them or I’ll curate a playlist based on my mood or based on a month in my life, or something that’s nostalgia-based. I’m very instinctive with most things in my life, but especially with music. I’ll just play exactly what I want to listen to and I’ll hit shuffle, and something from the depths of my playlist will emerge and remind me of a beautiful time in my life. It’s literally everything to me.
I like hearing that because I personally hate genre labels at the best of times. And we are all so glad that musical journey has led to you and Bloodywood finally performing in Australia this year.
It hasn’t sunk in for us at all, but we’re all really looking forward to it. One of our band members has previously visited Australia before, but this feels like it’ll be an experience entirely in itself. So, it’s our first time for all intents and purposes. I can’t wait.
BABYMETAL 2026 Australian Tour
With special guests Bloodywood
Pre-sale begins Tuesday, November 11th (10am local time)
General sale begins Thursday, November 13th (10am local time)
Ticket information available via destroyalllines.com
Thursday, March 12th
HPC, Perth, WA
Saturday, March 14th
AEC Theatre, Adelaide, SA
Tuesday, March 17th
John Cain Arena, Melbourne, VIC
Friday, March 20th
Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, NSW
Sunday, March 22nd
Riverstage, Brisbane, QLD
