Warfaze (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

: ওয়ারফেইজ) is a

Bangladeshi heavy metal Bangladeshi heavy metal or Bangla heavy metal was originated from the evolution of British and American heavy metal bands of the 1980s. Bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica and Megadeth have had the greatest influences on Bangladeshi heavy metal ...

band formed in 6 June 1984 in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

by Kamal, Meer, Helal, Naimul, and Bappy. They are one of the early heavy metal bands in Bangladesh. The band had numerous line-up changes since 1984. Since its inception, the band has released seven studio albums, one compilation album, and several singles. The band has experimented with different sub-genres of

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

and heavy metal over the years.

History

First decade and breakthrough – ''
Warfaze Warfaze (Bengali language, Bengali: ওয়ারফেইজ) is a Bangladeshi heavy metal band formed in 6 June 1984 in Dhaka by Ibrahim Ahmed Kamal, Kamal, Meer, Helal, Naimul, and Bappy. They are one of the early heavy metal music, heavy ...
'' and ''অবাক ভালোবাসা (Obak Bhalobasa)'' (1984–1994)

The first lineup of Warfaze in 1984 consisted of Bappi on vocals, Mir and Naimul on guitars, Kamal on bass, Helal on drums. This initial line-up underwent the first of many changes with Helal, Mir, and Bappi having to leave the band for personal reasons. By that time Kamal met Tipu in early 1986 and Tipu joined Warfaze as the drummer and co-founder. The band was far from breaking through to the mainstream music scene in Bangladesh. Heavy metal music was not much popular in Bangladesh back then. In 1986, Kamal took up lead guitar duties, Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu as a drummer, and Kamal and Tipu took Babna Karim as the bassist, and Reshad as the vocalist. This second lineup had to be discontinued when Naimul emigrated to the US. At that time, there were three other Dhaka-based metal bands: Rockstrata, In Dhaka, and Aces. Mashuk Rahman from In Dhaka and Fuad from Aces volunteered to help Warfaze as guest members (guitarist) and Warfaze introduced keyboard position in the band and Russell took the position. At the time, Warfaze was mostly a cover band, covering bands such as

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entit ...

Dokken Dokken is an American glam metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. It split up in 1989 and reformed four years later. The band had several hit singles which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, such as " Alone Again", " In My Dreams", and " Burn ...

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKa ...

. In 1988, Reshad had left the band for some personal reason and his place was filled by Sunjoy. Kamal had made arrangements for further education in the US by 1991. However, inspired by Maqsud, former vocalist of

Feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

, the band performed their own Bangla songs at a concert arranged by BAMBA at the

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

on 26 April 1992. The band at this concert decided to make a mixed album, but as it turned out Warfaze had enough songs to be able to release a solo album. The band went to release their self-titled album, ''Warfaze'', on 21 June 1991. The album featured the songs "Boshe Achi Eka" and "Ekti Chele". At the time, Bangladeshi music listeners were still new to metal. Any lyrics other than those inspired by romanticism or patriotism were rare. It took several months for the album to gain popularity but later succeeded. The album was followed up by a concert on 7 January 1992 at the Rawa Club. The next album, ''Obak Bhalobasha'', was released by Sargam in 1994. ''Obak Bhalobasha'' featured songs with heavier sounds. Warfaze's sound got developed on this album. "Obak Bhalobasha", the title song from the album was a big hit. This song was composed with soft melodic structures in a progressive way. The song is one of the earliest progressive rock songs in the history of Bangladesh. The song was sung by Babna Karim (Warfaze's bassist), instead of their lead singer, Sunjoy. "Obak Bhalobasha" is one of the fewest Warfaze's hit songs which weren't sung by their lead singers. !Obak Bhalobasha! is also one of the longest tracks recorded by Warfaze, spanning for 8 minutes and 37 seconds. After completing ''Obak Bhalobasha'' Russel Ali left the band at this stage to start a music career in the United States later that year.

''জীবনধারা (Jibon Dhara)'' and ''অসামাজিক (Oshamajik)'' (1996–1998)

The band released the album ''Jibondhara'' in 1996 December, with a line-up of vocal- Sunjoy, guitar- Kamal, bass & vocal- Babna Karim, drums- Tipu, and guest keyboardist Fuad played together on the same album.

Iqbal Asif Jewel Iqbal Asif Jewel (born 1 March) is a Bangladeshi singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer and producer. He is currently a member of the band Miles. Career Iqbal's first band was ''Legend'', whose first album was ''Onnobhubon''. After the rest of ...

joined as guest backup vocal and Ruchi backup vocal (guest). Iqbal Asif Jewel joined as a guitarist and second vocalist from another rock band, Legend. Babna had to leave for his career and study in the U.S.A. therefore he was replaced by Saidus Sumon who played for ''Oshamajik'' 1 April 1998. After completing Oshamajik Sunjoy left for his personal career. Sumon left to pursue a career both as a solo artist with his band

Aurthohin Aurthohin is a Bangladeshi rock band formed in Dhaka in 1998 by Saidus Sumon (vocals and bass guitar), Tonmoy Rahman (lead guitar), Ponir (rhythm guitar) and Rumi Rahman (drums and percussion). They are considered to be one of the pioneering b ...

and Biju joined replacing Sumon. Iqbal Asif Jewel left the band to join Miles. Fuad Ibne Rabbi also left the band for his personal career.

''আলো (Alo)'' and ''মহারাজ (Moharaj)'' (2000–2003)

The band underwent many changes in line-up over the next eight years. Their guitarist Balam, replaced Iqbal Asif Jewel. Mizan replaced Sunjoy on vocals while Shams became a keyboard player from 1999 and Biju as bass. Tipu and Kamal stood in their position still. This line-up released the album ''Aalo আলো (Light)'' in 2000. However, 2002 marked changes in the line-up once again with Mizan leaving the band for personal reasons and Kamal leaving the band for his personal and family issues. Kamal joined Sumon's band Aurthohin in 2006. Balam, who had already sung three notable songs in the album 'Alo' took up vocal & guitar duties as Mizan left and Sazzad was recruited from ''Metal Maze'' as the lead guitarist replacing Kamal. Bass player Biju left for Canada for his study and career. All the while, Tipu solely held the band together for its existence and recruited Cézanne as the bassist of the emerging progressive metal band

Artcell Artcell is a Bangladeshi progressive metal band formed in October 1999 by vocalist and riff guitarist George Lincoln D'Costa, lead guitarist Ershad Zaman, bassist Saef Al Nazi Cézanne and drummer Kazi Sazzadul Asheqeen Shaju. The first song th ...

. Later Balam departed to pursue a solo career as a commercial pop artist. Kamal rejoined the band in 2007 and the band recruited Oni Hasan from the band Vibe, resulting in a major change in their sound, with

neoclassical metal Neoclassical metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is heavily influenced by classical music and usually features very technical playing,Stephan Forté, "Metal néoclassique" in ''Guitarist Magazine Pedago'', Hors Série #29, "Les secrets du m ...

influences especially in live performances.

''পথচলা (Pothchala)'' (2009)

Following the release of a compilation album (sponsored by

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

) which includes re-recorded versions of their songs along with a couple of new singles titled "Tomake" and "Omanush", the band began touring extensively. With a new and stable lineup since 2007 that had stayed together for almost more than 5 years then, the band went on to celebrate their silver jubilee at a gala concert, which featured performances from both past and present members of Warfaze at the Winter Garden, Hotel Sheraton, Dhaka. Tipu announced that a live concert recording album was planned, along with a new studio album which later came out in 2012 titled ''Shotto''. The band continued to experiment with their sound with the release of a fusion album entitled ''Somorpon'', merging elements of heavy metal with traditional Bangladeshi

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

as a tribute to

Hason Raja Dewan Hason Raja Chowdhury, or simply known as Hason Raja ( bn, হাসন রাজা; 21 December 1854 – 6 December 1922), was a Bengali mystic poet and songwriter from Sylhet, Bengal Presidency (now Bangladesh). His unique style of mu ...

Lalon Lalon ( bn, লালন; 14 October 1772 – 17 October 1890), also known as Lalon Shah, Lalon Fakir, Shahji and titled Fakir, Shah, was a prominent Bengali spiritual leader, philosopher, mystic poet and social reformer. Regarded as an icon of ...

, and Baul Shah Abdul Karim working with Sumon's band Aurthohin and solo artist

Habib Wahid Habib Wahid (born 15 October 1979) is a Bangladeshi composer and singer. He works on modern pop music, EDM and a fusion of traditional Bengali folk music with contemporary techno and urban beats. His music is mainly influenced by British Bang ...

. Warfaze tributed the songs of Lalon, Aurthohin tributed the songs of Hason Raja and Habib Wahid tributed the songs of Baul Shah Abdul Karim.

''সত্য (Sotto)'' (2012)

''Shotto'', the new album was released on 21 October 2012 featuring the same line-up as in ''Poth Chola''. Tracks from the album include "Agami", "Na", "Purnota", "Shotto", "Jedin", "Rupkotha", "Jonosrot", and "Projonmo". The album also included an unreleased single from the early 2000s called "Protikkha". With Oni Hasan taking a break for his studies in the United Kingdom and Kamal recovering from surgeries, the band asked Faisal (from Metal Maze), Samir (from Powersurge), and Shrapnel Method to perform as guest members on live shows. With Oni playing lead guitar in the band, the sound of the album got significantly changed. Along with Kamal's shredding, Oni's heavy

groove metal Groove metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that began in the early 1990s. The genre achieved success in the 1990s and continued having success in the 2000s. Inspired by thrash metal and traditional heavy metal, groove metal features raspy ...

riffs were introduced. As well as his jaw-dropping dive bombs,

whammy pedal The DigiTech Whammy is a pitch shifter pedal manufactured by DigiTech. It was the first widely used effects pedal that could do foot-controlled pitch shifting effects. The pedal emulates sounds that a guitarist normally makes using the vibrato ...

uses, melodic fast

arpeggiated A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

solos with

sweep picking Sweep picking is a guitar playing technique. When sweep picking, the guitarist plays single notes on consecutive strings with a 'sweeping' motion of the pick, while using the fretting hand to produce a specific series of notes that are fast a ...

can be heard. At midnight on 13 February 2013, Warfaze performed at the Projonmo Chattar to show their support for the Shahbag protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in demand of capital punishment for Abdul Quader Mollah and all the other accused war criminals of the 1971

Liberation War Wars of national liberation or national liberation revolutions are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) to establish separat ...

of Bangladesh. It also marked the return of Kamal with his solos. In late 2014, Oni Hasan left the band to pursue higher education. Warfaze has performed their mega reunion Legacy Concert on 30 January 2015 to celebrate 30 years of music-making, The legacy concert took place at Gulnaksha Hall, International Convention City in

Bashundhara Residential Area Bashundhara ( bn, বসুন্ধরা আবাসিক এলাকা) is an upscale residential area in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The area is developed by Bashundhara Group. The project of Basundhara was started in the 1980s. In 2011 porti ...

, Dhaka. The celebration has brought together four of its past members – Babna Karim, Sunjoy, Balam, and Romel Ali – with its current line-up on the stage. On their Facebook page on 7 April 2016 they announced that Mizan has left the band. Later they announced Palash Noor as their new vocal.

Musical style and influences

The band has been consistently cited as an inspiration by most active heavy metal artists today in Bangladesh as one of the first bands to introduce metal to Bangladesh. The band used to play cover versions of bands like Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Whitesnake,

Scorpions Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...

, Guns N' Roses and Dokken, etc. in their early years. Throughout their career, the band has experimented with multiple genres of rock and metal.

Discography

Studio albums * ''Warfaze'' ( Sargam, 1991) * ''Obak Bhalobasha (Surprising Love)'' (Sargam, 1994) * ''Jibondhara (Lifestyle)'' (

Soundtek Soundtek is one of the famous old record label companies in Bangladesh, which produces Cassettes, CDs, VCDs and DVDs. Soundtek is one of the premier record labels in Bangladesh. The owner of the company is Sultan Mahmud. History In 1992, S ...

, 1996) * ''অসামাজিক (Unsocial)'' ( G-Series, 1998) * ''আলো (Light)'' (Soundtek, 2000) * ''মহারাজ (Your Majesty)'' ( Ektaar Music, 2003) * ''পথচলা (Walking Paths)'' (G-Series, 2009) * ''সত্য (Truth)'' (

Deadline Music Deadline Music is a record sub-label wholly owned and operated by Cleopatra Records. Deadline was founded at the turn of the century during a revival of 1980s glam/ hair metal bands in which there were new albums from Quiet Riot, White Lion, Wa ...

, 2012) Compilation albums * ''Best Collection – 4 in 1''(1999) Mixed albums * ''Dhun – 6 Band Mixed Album'' (ধুন) (1997) * ''Hit! Run! Out!'' (1998) * ''6 Band "99"'' (1999) * ''Tribute Album – Somorpon'' (সমর্পণ) (2011)

Members

Present members * Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu – drums, percussion, band leader *

Ibrahim Ahmed Kamal Ibrahim Ahmed Kamal (born 2 May 1969) is a Bangladeshi guitarist, songwriter and producer. He is the lead guitarist and the founder of the heavy metal band Warfaze. He has been the band's guitarist and composer for three decades. In his early ...

– lead guitar ; bass * Palash Noor – vocals * Samir Hafiz – lead guitar * Soumen Das – rhythm guitar * Naim Haque Roger – bass guitar * Shams Mansoor Ghani – keyboard Past members * Sunjoy – vocals * Babna Karim – bass, vocals * Balam – vocals, guitar * Mizan Rahman Mizan – vocals *

– guitar, vocals * Sazzad Arefin – guitar * Oni Hasan – guitar * Saidus Sumon – bass guitar, vocals * Biju – bass guitar * Cézanne Ahmed – bass guitar * Russel Ali – keyboard, guitar * Romel Ali – keyboard * Fuad Ibne Rabbi – keyboard, guitar * Helal – drums, * Bappi – vocals * Mir – guitar * Naimul – lead guitar * Reshad – vocals

Timeline

ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:22 PlotArea = left:130 bottom:90 top:10 right:20 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1984 till:11/04/2022 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Colors = id:vocals value:red legend:Lead_Vocals id:back value:pink legend:Backing_Vocals id:lead value:teal legend:Lead_Guitar id:rhythm value:brightgreen legend:Rhythm_Guitar id:bass value:blue legend:Bass id:drums value:orange legend:Drums,_Percussion id:keyboards value:purple legend:Keyboards,_Piano id:Lines value:black legend:Studio_Album Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4 ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1985 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1985 LineData = layer:back color:black at:01/01/1984 at:01/01/1985 at:01/01/1990 at:28/06/1991 at:01/01/1994 at:05/02/1997 at:02/04/1998 at:01/01/2001 at:01/01/2003 at:01/01/2005 at:01/01/2008 at:21/10/2012 BarData = bar:Kamal text:"Ibrahim Ahmed Kamal" bar:Tipu text:"Sheikh Monirul Alam Tipu" bar:Shams text:"Shams Mansoor Ghani" bar:Roger text:"Naim Haque Roger" bar:Samir text:"G Samir Hafiz" bar:Palash text:"Palash Noor" bar:Soumen text:"Soumen Das" bar:Mizan text:"Mizan Rahman Mizan" bar:Oni text:"Oni Hasan" bar:Balam text:"Balam" bar:Sazzad text:"Sazzad Arifin" bar:Cézanne text:"Cézanne" bar:Biju text:"Biju" bar:Sunjoy text:"Sunjoy" bar:Fuad text:"Fuad Ibn Rabbi" bar:Sumon text:"Khaled Sumon" bar:Jewel text:"Iqbal Asif Jewel" bar:Babna text:"Babna Karim" bar:Russel text:"Russel Ali" bar:Helal text:"Helal" PlotData= width:13 bar:Soumen from:01/01/2018 till:end color:lead bar:Palash from:01/01/2016 till:end color:vocals bar:Mizan from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2002 color:vocals bar:Mizan from:01/01/2007 till:01/01/2016 color:vocals bar:Balam from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2007 color:vocals bar:Sumon from:01/01/1997 till:01/01/1999 color:vocals bar:Jewel from:01/01/1997 till:01/01/1999 color:vocals bar:Sunjoy from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/1999 color:vocals bar:Babna from:01/01/1988 till:01/01/1996 color:vocals bar:Kamal from:01/01/1984 till:01/01/1985 color:bass bar:Kamal from:01/01/1985 till:01/01/2005 color:lead bar:Kamal from:01/01/2007 till:end color:lead bar:Samir from:01/01/2015 till:end color:lead bar:Oni from:01/01/2007 till:01/01/2014 color:lead bar:Sazzad from:01/01/2001 till:01/01/2007 color:lead bar:Balam from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2007 color:lead width:3 bar:Jewel from:01/01/1996 till:01/01/1999 color:lead width:3 bar:Fuad from:01/01/1994 till:01/01/1999 color:rhythm bar:Russel from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/1994 color:lead bar:Roger from:01/01/2003 till:end color:bass bar:Cézanne from:01/01/2002 till:01/01/2003 color:bass bar:Biju from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2002 color:bass bar:Sumon from:01/01/1996 till:01/01/1999 color:bass width:3 bar:Babna from:01/01/1988 till:01/01/1996 color:bass width:3 bar:Shams from:01/01/1999 till:end color:keyboards bar:Fuad from:01/01/1994 till:01/01/1999 color:keyboards width:3 bar:Russel from:01/01/1990 till:01/01/1994 color:keyboards width:3 bar:Tipu from:01/01/1985 till:end color:drums bar:Helal from:01/01/1984 till:01/01/1985 color:drums

References

{{Authority control 1984 establishments in Bangladesh Bangladeshi hard rock musical groups Bangladeshi heavy metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1984