CD Review: Oh Chentaku - Heartbreak Ridge Was Never This Arrogant

Oh Chentaku (translated into 'Oh my Love’) is a very ambitious local band. Formed in June 2007, Myo (guitars and main vocal), Adib (drums) and Naem (bass and keyboard) refuse to be labeled as jus another indie rock band. These three young and very talented musicians settled for post hardcore and emo rock as the genre of their music.

‘Heartbreak Ridge Was Never This Arrogant’ (‘Heartbreak’) is a combined effort of Oh Chentaku over these years and is their first published album, consisting of seven tracks altogether. ‘Heartbreak’ really does what a debut album should do – showcasing Oh Chentaku’s real color, carving a mark in the local music scene, showing us that they have arrived and is here to stay. All seven of the tracks were written and arranged by Myo (the alleged front man, I supposed) and Oh Chentaku, and I should say I am impressed with the outcome.

Coming across being similar to familiar faces like Nirvana and Butterfingers for their style of lyric and poetic wording used (sometimes I wonder if Myo is high on Pall Mall Menthol, nasi kandar and milo tarik while writing these songs…) Oh Chentaku boasts a matured sound of rock. You can almost unable to trace the fact that his is actually their debut album. They sounds like hey have been doing this since a few years back. They sound almost pro.

To my ears, if you are an avid listener to Nirvana, Butterfingers, John’s Mistress (where are they now?), Incubus, Box-car Racer, Korn (from their early years – not the new stuff they have been churning out these days) and old-school rock legends like Search and Wings, then you will love Oh Chentaku. Listening from one track to another you will taste the influences of such bands in their sound.

‘Starlight Stalker’ is a great opening track. Listening to this track for the first time, you would not capture the meaning behind it, but after a few go, you will realize that it is actually a beautiful love song (a love song for someone in Paris, perhaps, Myo? Hehe…). It could be interpreted in so many ways. For me, ‘Starlight’ is about remembrance. It conveys an emotion of missing someone, who most likely is no here anymore. With words like: “Don’t quit here, don’t put your head behind everyone. Please bring back all the sweet memories away from the cemetery” I think you will get the picture. But once again it is up to the listeners’ self interpretation toward the song.

Next is ‘Castleford’ which I think is one of my favorite tracks in the album. One listen to I and somehow I felt enthusiastic about life. The whole theme behind the song is about friendship. It tells you that if a friend of yours is down, you should not just sit still but offer a helping hand instead. This line: “This is no the end, I’m trying… to take you out. Into the light as I could see you heaving alone in the murk…” is a clear connotation of what true friendship should mean.

The third song ‘Polaroid’ is probably why I got interested in getting to know about the band a bit better. I heard a cover version of it being sung by another singer/songwriter named Yuna in Youtube way before I got to know that it is originally sung by Oh Chentaku. The song sounded well-written and composed, perfect for a soundtrack. If asked which version I prefer, definitely hands down the original version would prevail as it shows the raw power of lyrics really stands out on its own. The song, to me, is basically about relationship gone ashtray and that you sort of like picking up the pieces of what was left. I was good. It was not pretentious.

The only slow ballad (if I smugly should say so) in this album is track number four: ‘Serenade’, and yes, I is once again a song about relationship. Why the songwriter chooses to publish this track; well I think it is easier to write a song that is about something so close to your heart (like love and relationship rather than serious matter like war and poverty (leave those to Bono and John Lennon – they were good at those). Anyway, my only disappointment towards this song is that for a beautiful ballad like this, it comes out a big short. It lacks the big bang it really needs. It ended kind of mellow, short of any drama.

The next two songs that follow: ‘The Wicked Offspring’ and ‘Straight-line’ sounds a lot like a cross between Foo Fighters plus Love Me Butch and Pop Shuvit mashed into one. I adore those three bands and Oh Chentaku being compared to them means that I should make some room for them in the list of my favorite bands as well. The songs are sharp, have slick guitar riff and the solo opening in ‘Straight-line’ sounds like something Dave Grohl would do and I love it.

The closing track for ‘Heartbreak’ is ‘Fallback’, another fast rock track. This is easily a typical angry ‘I-hate-you-but-I-love-you’ kind of rock song, complete with cursing and profanity peppering the lyric. I should say I am shocked. For me, vulgar words should not be used whenever possible, even if you wanted to express your anger. Linkin Park used o create angst-mood songs like ‘Numb’, ‘Crawling’ and ‘Papercut’ (but ‘Minutes to Midnight’ was a slight letdown for me) and they do not use profanity to express their anger. But all in all I love the word in ‘Fallback’, especially “I will not apologize for what I did not trouble you”. I think it is cleverly crafted.

Overall, ‘Heartbreak’ really does a good representation of what Oh Chentaku is all about. But being only boasting seven tracks that clocking in no more that 40 minutes of post hardcore and emo rock, I think Oh Chentaku’s growing number of fans (myself included) will be thirsty for more, oh… should I say this… ‘loving’ from them. If you ever had the chance, go catch them performing live in one of their numerous gigs around KL (and even in Singapore and from what I heard, Indonesia... hurm...) and you will know why I enjoy their music. Catch their footages and videos at Youtube and try to figure whats with all the fuss about them. With room to learn and expand, I expected great things for them in the future.

** all pictures are taken directly from their myspace profile**