Bloodywood
Special Guests: Lake Malice
Venue: Academy 2, Manchester
Date: 28th March 2023.
Review By: Mark Young
Academy 2 is totally sold out tonight, with a long queue outside despite the standard Manchester weather. There’s only one support act, with Lake Malice taking the starting berth, and there seems to be a great cross-section of age showing up so far, with some epic battle vests on display.
Lake Malice
The place is nearly full well in advance of Lake Malice starting which is brilliant to see and is rammed by the start of their set, which can only bode well.
Lake Malice just explodes onto the stage and spend the next 30 minutes in a state of constant movement. Just from the opener, you can see why they have been nominated for HMA this year, mixing several genres into one massive pot of noise. It’s tight, high energy and just what you need from the support as they whip the near capacity crowd up into a feral state. There didn’t seem time for introductions as they blasted from song to song and just seemed at home on stage.
Alice Guala manages to sing, scream, growl sometimes, all in the same verse, and was in a complete hyperactive state as they served up this chaos mix of metal / hyper pop. Their slot just flew, with no chance for respite. Guitarist Blake Cornwall, rounding off this dynamic duo, laid down the heavy end and almost managed to keep up with Alice as she sped around the stage. Special mention must go to the drummer, who kept a propelling beat for the full set and just pummelled the absolute shit out of them.
Surely bigger nights await them? Especially if they can keep their upwards trajectory going, because on the strength of these 7 songs, on their talent and natural ability to work the crowd the way they do, they will have an amazing future ahead of them.
Constant perpetual motion 
(4 / 5)
Bloodywood
And so, onto the main event. Overhearing chat during the break, there is an incredible buzz for Bloodywood. There is a banner attached to the railing at the front, brought and displayed with total pride. Speaking with them, they guarantee that Bloodywood will blow the roof off the place, that is surely at capacity now.
And BOOM. One by one they arrive and then for the next hour it is a full-on assault, with the dual vocal attack of Jayant (growls) and Raoul (raps) in constant swing, where one is performing the other is cajoling the crowd to keep up and vice-versa, and it is a masterclass in getting the crowd to let go and join the Bloodywood army. The music is heavy, with double percussion of drum and dhol (Vishesh and Sarthak) matching the guitar and bass (Karan and Roshan) supporting the twin-vocals and the stage is barely big enough to contain their explosive movement.
It’s a finely tuned arrangement where each song is introduced with a positive message or affirmation before it, be it for unity, or understanding, or diversity it just brings the audience even closer and fosters that feeling that this is one big family. And on the strength of tonight, this family is only going to get bigger.
None of this is forced or for effect, it is a genuine love and appreciation of their fan base, and this is reciprocated a thousand-fold as they shift gears through their hour slot to bring the night to an amazing end.
It was truly incredible to see the audience go nuts with the same sort of energy that I’ve seen recently at Lamb Of God, as well as the cross-section of ages present. It just shows that this is for everyone and if you get the chance to catch these live, you just must because they are on the approach for take-off, with upcoming support slots for Gojira in June and something like 22 out of 23 shows so far sold out, that gives you just a little hint of how far they can go.
All the fives!!!! 
(5 / 5)
