Daarchlea was formed in 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Daarchlea was the first band for each of its members. In the first stage, Daarchlea only consisted of Zulhelmy and Khairulazizi. However, in pursuit to achieve their dreams of having their own band, they searched for other members to complete the band’s line up. This effort was quite complicated because it was hard to find someone who has the same interest of music that suits the band’s taste and someone who can play the type of music that Daarchlea’s delivering. Yet after a few months of searching, Daarchlea finally found its members and had completed its line-up. One by one, each member with similar interests as Zulhelmy and Khairulazizi had showed up. Shairulzaim, followed by his good friend, Zulhilmi joined Daarchlea. As the search continued, they found Zulkhairy to take the position as the drummer. The line up almost completed except that there was one position left to be filled which was the vocalist. It wasn’t easy to find someone talented and committed enough for this position. But with luck and persistence, they finally found Firdaus and persuaded him to officially join Daarchlea as the lead singer, and as the front man of the band.
The band’s name was later decided on by the band, and explained that they came up with the idea in a local magazine interview:
“Daarchlea’s name was originally derived from the name of a flower, Dahlia. Spelling of “Dahlia”, we changed it to “Daarchlea” so the name’s character will look a bit strange and may sound a little rough. It’s a statement towards typical human mentality that often judge something based on the visible exterior without trying to find out the base or root. The name itself is a simple truism, but it’s something that we all find too hard to forget…”
It was during February 2007, when the band first appeared in the Malaysian metal scene, when they first performed at the Pandan Music Festival 2007 battle of the bands. The band started to receive recognitions, performed in gigs, concerts and tours throughout Malaysia and performed alongside international bands such as Caliban, Heaven Shall Burn, Arch Enemy, Suicide Silence, As Blood Runs Black, First Blood, Ruiner, More Than Life (U.K), and also featured few great and legendary regional bands such as Burgerkill (Indonesia), Siksakubur (Indonesia), Wormrot (Singapore), Impiety (Singapore), As-Sahar (Singapore), Straight Answer (Indonesia), Blooded Suicide (Indonesia), No Rest For the Weary (Singapore), and last but not least, tons of Malaysian local heroes.
On July 2009, Zulhilmi decided to leave the band due to his personal and other commitments, and his role was replaced by Asyraf Ahmad. Two years later, it was announced that Zulkhairy would no longer be a member of the band, citing personal and business reasons for the departure and Wan Muhd Rukhairul was announced as Daarchlea’s new drummer. On October 2013, vocalist Firdaus decided to left the band and Ziddy was added to the line-up in his replacement and officially announced as the new frontman for the band.
Daarchlea officially released their first EP called “Daarchlea Live Promo” in 2008 and signed to Gegey Music in 2009 alongside other label mates such as Siksakubur (Indonesia), For Better Endings (Singapore), The Padangs (Malaysia) and Hello, Is This The Band? (Malaysia). On August 27th, 2014, Daarchlea officially released their debut full-length album called “Suns” (self-released) and the band spent their following months promoting and touring on Suns Malaysian Tour, including their headlining appearance at the Malaysia’s largest music festival, Rock The World in Kuala Lumpur in December 2014.
To those who are interested in listening to their music you can purchased their debut album “SUNS” via digital formats on i-Tunes, Spotify and Amazon Mp3. Don’t forget to follow Daarchlea official facebook, twitter, instagram and website for more updates about the band upcoming tour.
