When Peekay released Cast in Chaos on 26 June 2026, the Hyderabad-born modern-metal project was not testing a first impression. It was finishing a year of singles that already carried Pranati Khanna's clean-to-guttural range into American alt-metal and djent territory, then asking whether that run still held as a five-track EP. Hyperspace and Bleed had done the advance work; Deliverance, The Devil Within and the title cut completed the statement. Rolling Stone India's 13 October 2026 Review Rundown called the EP a definitive pitch for Los Angeles. Spotify's Rock in India still keeps the 2024 Flipsyde collaboration Running at No. 71 as of 14 October 2026. This Peekay Cast in Chaos review listens to the June EP against those singles, against the Bandland and Bangalore Open Air stages that made the bi-continental story public, and against the Indian metal shelf that already holds Fallen Letters, Girish And The Chronicles and The Down Troddence on the same editorial playlist.

Peekay Cast in Chaos at a glance

  • EP: Cast in Chaos, released 26 June 2026 (Apple Music / iTunes album 6772226859; ℗ 2026 Peekay)
  • Tracks (Apple order): Deliverance; Hyperspace; The Devil Within; Bleed (feat. Shashank Bhatnagar); Cast in Chaos
  • Genre listed: Metal; label line: independent (copyright Peekay)
  • Frontperson / songwriter: Pranati Khanna; longtime guitarist-producer: Jonathan Edward (Rolling Stone India; official site)
  • Guest: Shashank Bhatnagar on Bleed
  • Related playlist cut: Running (with Steve Knight of Flipsyde), 1 May 2024 — Rock in India No. 71 (checked 14 October 2026), playlist 37i9dQZF1DX2Ja6eBQeGaS
  • Spotify artist: 2QRt3WqRMTnQXu6mgGnqKl; Apple artist: 1509233211
  • Press snapshot: Rolling Stone India Merciless feature (25 July 2024); Platform Mag Hyperspace profile (7 August 2025); HEAVY Magazine EP notice (26 June 2026); Rolling Stone India Review Rundown (13 October 2026)
  • Verdict: a polished five-song modern-metal EP that earns the L.A. ambition; start with Hyperspace and the title track, then hear Running for the Rock in India door

Who Peekay are

Peekay is the project name for Hyderabad vocalist and songwriter Pranati Khanna. Rolling Stone India's Anurag Tagat, writing on the July 2024 single Merciless, treats Peekay and Khanna as the same public identity: a Hyderabad artist moving into a modern, polished heavy sound with collaborator Jonathan Edward. The official peekay.live bio, current as of this draft, frames the act as genre-fluid modern metal born in Hyderabad and based between Los Angeles and India, blending cinematic cleans with djent-heavy riffs and guttural screams, "crafted with producer Jonathan Edward."

Platform Mag's August 2025 Hyperspace profile fills in the earlier path without inventing a formation year. Khanna is described as jazz-trained, with detours through pop, R&B and soul after fronting a rock band in Hyderabad, then choosing metal again: "I was always going to come back home. Metal is home. Rock is home." That arc matters for Cast in Chaos because the EP's drama is vocal — the same voice that can sit on a hook also opens into growls — not a costume change announced for one release.

Live markers that are independently corroborated are enough for a review desk. BookMyShow's Bandland 2024 recap lists Peekay among opening-day performers ahead of Avenged Sevenfold's first India headline; the official site and Platform Mag also name the Jinjer bill at Bangalore Open Air. Rolling Stone India, ahead of Merciless, already had Peekay playing that song at Music Matters in Singapore and at the regional Wacken Metal Battle India leg. In the same interview Khanna announced an artist-visa move to Los Angeles for September 2024, saying her genre held "very little space" at home. Cast in Chaos arrives after that move was public, which is why RSI's October 2026 rundown reads the EP as an L.A. statement rather than a hometown demo reel.

Do not confuse this Peekay with similarly named Bandcamp or soundtrack credits. The catalogue that matches Rock in India and this EP sits on Spotify artist 2QRt3WqRMTnQXu6mgGnqKl and Apple Music artist 1509233211 only.

What the 2024–25 singles set up

Before Cast in Chaos, the Apple Music spine is clear. Starlight arrived as an EP on 11 August 2023 under The Whole Shebang copyright line. Running, credited to Peekay and Steve Knight, landed 1 May 2024 as Hard Rock on Apple and remains the cut Rock in India carries. Merciless followed on 25 July 2024: co-written and produced with Edward, mixed and mastered by Mumbai guitarist-producer Keshav Dhar of Skyharbor, and framed by Tagat as prog-rock and djent. Horizon (December 2023) sits nearby; Merciless is the 2024 single RSI documented in depth.

2025 tightened the metal brief. Hyperspace, released 27 June 2025 and later track two on the EP, was written at Khanna's parents' dining table after she moved back home in 2023, then built with Edward into what she told Platform Mag was "the monster it is now." Platform heard djent-driven grooves about being together yet alone in the digital age. Bleed, featuring Shashank Bhatnagar and dated 14 November 2025 on Apple, is the other pre-EP single HEAVY and RSI both treat as part of the Cast in Chaos journey. Those two songs are why the June 2026 EP feels like a folder closed, not five cold starts.

Self-copyrighted singles, a named producer partnership and festival opens without a major-label radio desk sit next to our reporting on how independent bands build their sound and on releasing music without a traditional label. Peekay's ℗ lines on Cast in Chaos simply read Peekay. The desk field is Independent.

How does Cast in Chaos sound?

Apple Music sequences five tracks and stamps the collection Metal under a 26 June 2026 release date. HEAVY Magazine's same-day notice maps Hyperspace and Bleed as the lead-in singles; Deliverance, The Devil Within and Cast in Chaos as the new pillars; and a title-track video that contrasts a dark gothic figure with a pink online influencer who collapses under scrutiny. The EP's narrative is visual as well as sonic; the title cut carries both.

Rolling Stone India's October 2026 rundown is the critical spine this review trusts. Tagat hears Khanna balancing aggressive growls with anthem-like cleans, notes the Lacuna Coil / Spiritbox / Jinjer comparisons, then credits a freshness that still sets her apart inside Indian metal and beyond. Hyperspace and Bleed remain the identity-struggle centre, "bolstered by vocalist Shashank Bhatnagar's anguish" on the feature. Deliverance and The Devil Within run "a familiar kind of American alt metal edge." The title track adds urgency and a few electronic elements until the sound is "equal parts sprawling and frenetic." RSI's closing line — that Cast in Chaos is a definitive statement given Peekay's L.A. goal — is the frame we keep.

Apple durations stay in modern-single length: Deliverance about 4:05, Hyperspace about 4:30, The Devil Within about 3:34, Bleed about 4:15, Cast in Chaos about 3:51. That is a different patience from Fallen Letters stretching past six minutes, or from Girish And The Chronicles turning a hard-rock idea toward a full album cycle. Peekay's bet is density and vocal contrast inside radio-adjacent runtimes.

We will not invent mix credits Apple does not list, or a permanent touring line-up beyond Khanna and Edward as the documented creative core. The public record is enough: five metal tracks, two road-tested as 2025 singles, a guest vocalist on Bleed, and press that hears a bi-continental modern-metal pitch rather than a local footnote.

Why the Rock in India placement matters

Rock in India is Spotify's broad Indian rock editorial, not a metal ghetto. It already carries Motherjane, Thaikkudam Bridge, The Down Troddence and the wider map in our Indian metal bands feature. Peekay's footprint on that list in the 14 October 2026 snapshot of playlist 37i9dQZF1DX2Ja6eBQeGaS is Running with Steve Knight at No. 71 — a 2024 hard-rock collaboration, not a Cast in Chaos cut. Fresh Finds India had no Peekay tracks that day.

The gap is useful. Running is the discovery door for listeners who only know the project as one tile among DIY-rooted Rock in India names. Cast in Chaos is the body of work that explains why the tile deserves a longer listen. RSI treats the EP as the L.A. argument; Rock in India still argues through the Flipsyde collab. Hold both facts at once.

Should you press play?

Yes — especially if Running is your only Peekay contact. Start with Hyperspace for the 2025 writing-room story Platform Mag documented, then Cast in Chaos for the title-track urgency RSI flagged, then Bleed for the Bhatnagar feature, then Deliverance and The Devil Within for the American alt-metal edge. Loop back to Running to hear how the 2024 playlist cut sits beside the heavier 2026 folder. Merciless remains the best document of the Edward–Dhar chain if you want the pre-EP djent chapter Tagat covered in 2024.

Peekay will not replace the political folk-metal of The Down Troddence or the progressive patience of Fallen Letters. They do not need to. Cast in Chaos is a compact modern-metal EP from a Hyderabad voice that has already opened festival bills for global headliners and is explicitly trying to make the music travel. On the Apple catalogue, the HEAVY notice and Rolling Stone India's October verdict, the EP does the job it claims: it turns a year of singles into a statement you can hand to someone who only knows Indian metal from a playlist.

FAQ

When was Cast in Chaos by Peekay released?

On 26 June 2026, according to Apple Music / iTunes (album id 6772226859, ℗ 2026 Peekay) and HEAVY Magazine's same-day EP notice. Spotify carries the title track as 0eMztQQYe906adoGBKeWDq.

Is Cast in Chaos on Spotify's Rock in India playlist?

Not in our 14 October 2026 check of playlist 37i9dQZF1DX2Ja6eBQeGaS. Peekay's presence on that list in the same snapshot is Running (with Steve Knight) at No. 71. Fresh Finds India (37i9dQZF1DXaRf94BiB7fV) had no Peekay tracks that day.

Who is Peekay?

Peekay is the modern-metal project of Hyderabad vocalist-songwriter Pranati Khanna, working closely with guitarist-producer Jonathan Edward. Rolling Stone India, Platform Mag and the official peekay.live bio all use that framing. Spotify artist id 2QRt3WqRMTnQXu6mgGnqKl / Apple Music artist id 1509233211.

How many tracks are on Cast in Chaos?

Five, in Apple Music order: Deliverance, Hyperspace, The Devil Within, Bleed (feat. Shashank Bhatnagar), Cast in Chaos. Hyperspace and Bleed were issued as singles in 2025 before the EP date.

Where is Peekay from?

Hyderabad, India, with a public base between Los Angeles and India after Khanna's 2024 artist-visa move discussed in Rolling Stone India's Merciless interview. Catalog locale for this desk is Hyderabad.

What label releases Cast in Chaos?

Apple Music / iTunes copyright for the EP reads ℗ 2026 Peekay. Earlier Starlight carried The Whole Shebang; Merciless-era singles used Peekay or Pranati Khanna lines. The desk Independence field is Independent.

Sources

Cover: Official Cast in Chaos EP artwork via Apple Music / iTunes (album 6772226859), ℗ 2026 Peekay. Placed on a blurred extension and resized to 1200×630; metadata stripped. Source: https://music.apple.com/in/album/cast-in-chaos-ep/6772226859.