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Some events feel like dreams, that’s how fantastic they are. When we started this blog in 2019, we never thought that we would be able to experience the things that have happened, especially this year! A couple of years ago, we were unable to attend another BLOODYWOOD tour because circumstances just didn’t permit it and we didn’t think that the words „Next time, we’re seeing them!“ would amount to anything more than wishful thinking. But dreams do come true: On March 9th of this year the Return of the Singh-Tour made a stop in Leipzig’s Täubchenthal. DEMONIC RESURRECTION and CALVA LOUISE acted as support for this intense and exciting evening, that we won’t forget for a long time!
Huge thanks again to lightinmirror.de for the awesome pictures and thank you to those behind the scenes that made this possible!
DEMONIC RESURRECTION
If you ever asked yourself what DISSECTION would sound like if they were from India, then DEMONIC RESURRECTION have the answer for you! The band, that hails from Mumbai, opened the evening with an excitingly fresh Death Metal show that skillfully showed how to incorporate one’s cultural background into the music. The set was kept rather short with just five songs, which was really quite sad because I felt like the band could have played a couple songs more.
It’s truly a shame that I have come across them only now after more than 25 years of band history! That proved to me once more that my focus shouldn’t just be on Europe when it comes to new discoveries! How many good bands like DEMONIC RESURRECTION might be lurking out there that I don’t know anything of? I bet, there are a lot!
They really were my thing and especially the song Apocalyptic Dawn was just my cup of tea! While listening to them at home I realized that they even included mythological elements into their songs, for example in Krishna – The Cowherd or Narasimha – The Man-Lion. That mix is excitingly cool, there is no doubt about it, and I’m looking forward to seeing more from them in the future! They are definitely a blast live!
CALVA LOUISE
Everyone knows that you shouldn’t count your chickens before they have hatched and CALVA LOUISE are a perfect example for that. During the first few notes I was a bit skeptical and couldn’t really imagine what we were about to hear… However, the stylistic mix they played was exceedingly catchy! With just three people on stage, CALVA LOUISE gave 300% and it was very fun!
I find it hard to describe what their music sounds like… It’s an Indie-Metal-Version of a Sci Fi movie and the part that you would realize with a Theremin is done with guitar, keyboard, drums and bass by CALVA LOUISE. There are punk-like moments as well as sequences which would be applauded by a Progressive Metal audience. The international influences of this Venezuelan-French-British group are undeniable. I found it particularly remarkable that the singer, whose voice reminded me partially of POPPY, sang, played guitar and worked the keyboard at the same time! I had never seen that before!
If you want to get lost in a wild style mix and get carried away by pure joy of playing then CALVA LOUISE just might be the thing for you! Maybe the spark doesn’t ignite the first time, but if you give this band a little more time, you’ll end up burning for them!
BLOODYWOOD
If you don’t know BLOODYWOOD, you definitely haven’t been paying attention to the Metal scene in recent years! The band around Raoul Kerr, Jayant Bhadula and Karan Katiyar have impressively proven with their success story that India is not only an exceptionally musical country, but that extreme music lives and thrives there! Their Nu Delhi Metal mixture, which artfully incorporates traditional instruments, is as high-quality as it is catchy. Our expectations were therefore high!
Due to the interview, we arrived about two hours before the doors opened and I was very surprised that there were already fans waiting to be granted first access to the venue. We hadn’t had that for a long time! For me, that was the first solid indication of the dedication and passion that exists between the fans and the band.
And guys, to be honest: it was simply unbelievable what happened when the band played the first notes. From the very first second, there was an energy between the band and the audience that I’ve never seen before. There was a pit right from the start, the audience made a lot of noise and BLOODYWOOD absorbed this energy and played it back many times over! We’ve seen a lot in the last few years, but this was truly unique! It even got to the point where Dhol player Sartak made his way into the crowd and then continued to play in the circle pit! Insane!
The set featured what I consider the best of the band’s discography from Dana-Dan to my favorite Jee Veerey to songs from the upcoming album Nu Delhi! There was even a previously unreleased song called Halla Bol. At this point I can also reveal that you will find out more about this special song in the interview coming soon.
What I like so much about BLOODYWOOD’s music is the blunt way in which the group addresses contentious topics. These topics, such as (post-)colonialism, are not addressed in a judgmental or reproachful way, but it’s a very sober expression. Rebellion and social struggle are so universal that every audience can understand the approach. When I think of songs like Machi Bhasad and see how the audience in Leipzig reacted to them, how powerful must the reception be in India? In today’s world, where rebellion is seen as something bad and inferior, BLOODYWOOD are doing exactly what the powerful don’t want them to do. It almost reminds me a bit of a quote from R.F. Kuang’s Babel: “This is how colonialism works. It convinces us that the fallout from resistance is entirely our fault, that the immoral choice is resistance itself rather than the circumstances that demanded it.” (At this point, a big recommendation for this masterful book!)
The culmination of the concert was the song Gaddaar, which is probably THE BLOODYWOOD song par excellence. If the architectural structures of the Täubchenthal weren’t so stable, the audience would surely have torn them apart with the way everyone went wild!
This is also where the only point of criticism I have comes to light: The set only contained nine songs and, with a total duration of about an hour, was very short for a headline set. I can’t say exactly why the band played such a short set, but a look at the setlists of the cities they’ve already played shows that they played the same set everywhere. So it can’t be due to the venue. I think that a headliner should be playing for at least 90 minutes. That’s only fair to all those who bought a ticket! So the next time BLOODYWOOD come to Leipzig, they can play three more songs!
All in all, we can look back on a more than successful evening that rewired my brain for good! I’ll definitely need two or three more working days to come to terms with how cool the concert was.
As part of my coping therapy, an interview with rapper Raoul will be published here in the next few days, which you can look forward to! So stay tuned and see you soon!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 