The band, based out of Ottawa, performed in front of their native audiences at the Liberation War Museum (LWM) on Friday night, which was joined by four other popular Bangladeshi bands - Kaaktaal, Apekkhik, AK Rahul and Shonar Bangla Circus.
Even though it was the debut homeground event for the expatriate band, Opartheeb brilliantly performed in this long-cherished concert. Audiences welcomed the band with open arms, showered with love and support at the jam-packed LWM auditorium on Friday, January 26.
Opartheeb started off their journey in the summer of 2008 with Syed Adnan Ali (Kiron) on drums, Salehin Chowdhury (Ucchash) on vocals and guitar, Asfin Haider (Disha) on vocals, Aad-Yean Faisal (Purno) on keyboards, and Ahsan Ali (Jibon) on bass and guitar.
Sharing their amazing experience of the band's debut live concert, Opartheeb's keyboardist Aad-Yean Faisal (Purno) told UNB that the event was a magical journey for the band.
“The beginning of Opartheeb was pretty interesting. I, along with Salehin and Asfin were international students in Canada, while Ahsan and Adnan are first-generation Canadians and siblings, and the thirst for creating music brought us together at Carleton University in Ottawa.”
They all came from a diverse musical background and experiences, which allowed them to be able to blend it all into creating magic. Their love for the language brought them together and their passion for music kept them connected, and they found their passion and identity in symphonic metal to resonate their powerful message to the world.
Opartheeb took the stage for the first time in February 2009 a year after the band was formed. Their performance at the Bangladeshi Students Association’s annual program at Carleton University was a huge hit; since then, the band has done numerous live shows in Ottawa - and as years passed by, their passion for music continued to grow.
“However - our dream was to perform in our homeground, in front of our Bangladeshi fans in Bangladesh. Previously, back in 2012, we contacted Ehsanul Huq Tito, one of the prominent and active faces in the country’s band community, with some of our demo recordings and he suggested that we need to work on our songs.”
“In 2018, he opined positively and suggested adding a specialist for mixing and mastering who has adequate knowledge and work experiences on symphonic and orchestral metal sounds, and we found Sazzad Arefeen.”
Sazzad Arefeen, a renowned guitarist in the country who started developing his career since 1994, wrote songs and kept on teaching guitar with his own guitar instructions institutions which is the largest and strongest in Bangladesh called ‘Guitar Never Lies’ - was the right person for the task, according to Purno. Sazzad has played for popular bands including Metal Maze, Warfaze, and Symphonic Metal pioneer De-illumination, but later decided to step onto international release which has been successfully achieved by Ground-Force, a power metal band known for their 3 Volume Concept album 'Tree of Life’ and other notable works.
The revamped Opartheeb released their self-produced single track ‘Bangal’ on December 16 in 2021. The extremely positive responses from listeners back home moved their hearts, and made Opartheeb believe that music is their pathway back to their root, Bangladesh.
The ‘Homecoming’ concert was, however, in jeopardy due to the political circumstances and national election in the country. After the election, the band and the concert organizers-associates jumped in to organize the concert.
“Upon visiting the organizer and ticketing platform Get Set Rock and promotional partner Bangladesh Band Music Fans Community (BBMFC)’s office, we were amazed to see how tremendously they started coordinating the concert. We got into conversation with several prominent bands in the country, and bands such as Apekkhik, Kaaktaal, A K Rahul and Shonar Bangla Circus were on board for the live concert without any hesitation to perform in our show, even though we were the debutants here. They were amazing to us, and we wholeheartedly enjoyed their performances.”
After further describing their positive interactions with the bands and performing artists, Purno explained the magical experience of their first-ever concert in their own motherland. The band performed a total of five songs - ‘Joddha’, ‘Rupkotha’, ‘Tumi Nei’, ‘Pothik’, one instrumental track with Sazzad Arefeen titled ‘Eyes of the Bengal’ and ‘Bangal’.
“Our first song, ‘Joddha’, was dedicated to the Palestinian soldiers and war victims, narrated from a war-tormented child's perspective. We showcased a special digital presentation with the song, gradually displaying a head count with the total number of war victims showcased at the end.”
“We grow up with a vivid imagination in our magical world, but end up in a very harsh reality. This broken connection with our imaginary fairy world was featured in our next song, ‘Rupkotha’, another of our released tracks.”
“Nostalgia is a frequent part of our everyday life, and that missing sensation can be felt for any person, place or object. We featured this everlasting sense of nostalgia in our next track, titled ‘Tumi Nei’ which is another released band song.”
“The next track, ‘Pothik’, was a very emotional one for us. In this walk of life, death is the ultimate destination for everyone - none can avoid that; but unfortunately for us, a particular death shattered us into broken pieces. Our bassist Jibon and drummer Kiron, two real-life siblings who came to Bangladesh with their family members for this concert - suddenly lost their father after coming to the country. Uncle and aunty were two of our ardent supporters from the initial stage of the band - so this loss felt personal to all of us.”
“That is why, we offered to put this concert on the shelf for a while, but both Kiron and Jibon insisted and said that they wanted to do the concert and dedicate this event to the memories of their father, our beloved uncle. Our guest guitarist and producer Sazzad Arefeen played guitar on this unreleased track.”
“Our next song, ‘Eyes of the Bengal’, was also a unique collaboration with Sazzad Arefeen, a great creation of the popular guitarist and our producer - and we wrapped up our performances with our most popular song, ‘Bangal’ which has always been greeted by our admirers with love,” Purno told UNB, wrapping up his wonderful experiences of the band’s ‘Homecoming’ concert.
Opartheeb has released five singles so far on all global platforms and currently working with guitarist Sazzad Arefeen, marching towards their first album ‘Abchha Neel Kona’ which is expected to be released before the Summer of 2024. The band is also expected to perform with Artcell this year in Canada, along with their other regular live events.
