Live Review: Bloodywood – O2 Ritz, Manchester
25th March 2025
Support: Demonic Resurrection, Calva Louise
Words: Matthew Williams
Photos: Nic Howells
With a huge queue still outside, I walked into the venue just as opening band Demonic Resurrection took to the stage to big applause. The 4 piece have an eerie intro playing before they burst into life with opener “Matsya – The Fish”. The solos from Adita Swaminathan are excellent as he headbangs away ferociously during with the middle section getting the crowd going.
"Good evening, Manchester. We are Demonic Resurrection and we've flown all the way from India. How many of you have heard of us before tonight?" asks frontman Sahil “The Demonstealer” Makhija "about 7 or 8 of you" he jokes, "We've been a band for 25 yrs, and we are so old that the drummer wasn't even born as he's 22 years old. I'm going to talk less and play more so this is Apocalyptic Dawn”, and heads really start to bang. It's brutal stuff and they all stand together before one of the solos and somehow go up another level.
"Thank you for all coming out to see us. Before I left a man said that we'd be too heavy and too extreme for Bloodywood fans, but he was so wrong." He then takes a picture of the crowd "I want to see some British heavy metal action, you know what to do" and with "Krishna – The Cowherd” is full flow the pit fires up on order. It's another great song, full of aggression and heaviness that receives decent applause at the end. " We bands are basically travelling t-shirt salesman so come over to the merch stand later, this is our last song called Narasimha - The Man-Lion.” It's another bruiser with searing solos and thunderous drums played to a click track I’m assuming, which supports their symphonic black metal sound. However, Makhija was only joking around, as they end with “The Unrelenting Surge of vengeance” which is another awesome song that gets the crowd going and ends a storming set. 'Thank you Manchester, you've been amazing and made this opening band feel like the headliner."
A programmed keyboard beat pierces the stage darkness, and whilst the crowd clap along, Calva Louise bound onto the stage. The 3 piece appears with Jess Allanic on guitar/lead voclas/keyboard, alongside Alizon Taho on bass and drummer Ben Parker. They start with “W.T.F.” and it goes down well. "Thank you so much we are Calva Louise from Venezuela and New Zealand” says Allanic before they continue with "Third Class Citizen".
It's a theatrical number before they inject some noise and heavy drumbeats but the vocal from Allanic dominates this song. An 80's style synth sound kicks off and with the trio bathed in red light they both play their keyboards/synths on “Over The Threshold.” Allanic’s is on a swinging stand which she bats away when not required, and throws in a few sidekicks for good measure. “We are so grateful to be on tour with the best band in the world Bloodywood. This is a new song called Aimless.” which has great variety in the tempo and vocals as a few crowd surfers emerge.
" Ok, I'm from Venezuela, Ben is from New Zealand and he’s” pointing to Taho, “is from France" which draws a few joking boos. " However, we are a UK band and grateful to be here. This is show number 24 of this tour and we've seen the most amazing places and having the best time ever. This is another new song called 'Tunnel Vision." And it's crazy, over the top chaos but enjoyably so. With 2 more songs left “it’s great to play in our hometown and hopefully we'll be back here again soon. This is called “Feast is Over" which runs into final track “Oportunista”, and they are full of solos and synth parts, which brings an end to a fun and enjoyable 30-minute set.
At precisely 9.30pm, the stage lights dim, and the crowd starts chanting “BLOODYWOOD, BLOODYWOOD”. Drummer Vishesh Singh leads the way and gets to work as the other 5 members stand in a line across the stage headbanging in unison as they blast off their set with “Dana Dan”. The crowd are loving it, and the band are in full flow. Its colourful, loud and with the dual vocals of Jayant Bhadula and Raoul Kerr working in perfect harmony.
As pyros reign down from the ceiling, dhol player, and all round crazy headbanger, Sarthak Pahwa, throws a plastic duck into the crowd, for what reasons, I do not know. “What the fuck is up Manchester? It’s time for Nu Delhi, the heartbeat of a billion people” shouts Bhadula, “we are taking you back to the place where it all began, a place we call home” as they embrace their culture and heritage with the bruising title track from the latest release, that sees the stage flooded with lights, cracking riffs and synchronised headbanging.
“Aaj” is one hell of a strong song live, as the nu-metal rapping from Kerr getting the crowd really worked up into a chaotic mess. A song all about chasing dreams, sees Karan Katiyar swap guitar for flute, as more pyros cascade down onto the stage. The crowd joyfully sings along with Bhadula, and the place is happy. “We played over 150 shows when we toured in 2023, and the one thing we missed was a hearty home cooked meal. Wars have started over food, and good food needs to be shared. Are you hungry?” asks Bhadula before they play “Tadka” and madness ensues, with a circle pit forming for the first time.
“Jee Veerey” begins with Kerr talking about being “in a place so dark that the moon doesn’t shine there” before Bhadula takes over and asks the crowd to “lift your fist in the air and we’ll find a way out of the darkness”. The flute struck me most during this, as it’s a beautiful sound floating around the venue, yet it seemed strange seeing crowd surfers whilst it was being played. Their set is full of east vs west, and they sing and perform with passion and each song means so much to them.
With Bhadula leading into “Bekhauf” talking about fear being a simple thing, but “fear is nothing but a choice” the song cranks up a few notches and is more frenetic, the Babymetal dubbed vocal influence shining through. It was frenzied at the front and the circle pit continued to flourish. “2019 we last played in Manchester, and now in 2025 we are selling out big places like this to play for you beautiful people, thank you” as Bhadula thanks the stage crew, tour manager, lighting and sound engineer before introducing each member of the band individually, all leading to huge cheers.
Before introducing “Machi Bhasad” Kerr talks about the need for honesty in politics, and if not then “expect a riot” as the song explodes with the crowd being commanded to get down and jump when told by Bhadula. All the band are animated on stage, and are proper nuts, with Pahwa ending up in the crowd with his dhal. “This is our last song” booed by the masses, “but it’s a very fucking new song about how we need to hold those in power to account and break oppression, this is called Halla Bol” and the crowd go wild. The rhythm is infectious, the drumming is superb, and the light show adds to the craziness of the night.
“Thank you Manchester, take care of yourselves, are you sure you want one more song?” asks Bhadula, which of course we all do, and they come back on to finish with the glorious “Gaddaar” which sees the entire crowd bouncing and cheering. What. A. Night.
Photo credits: Nic Howells
