in 1987, in a series of unfortunate and bizarre incidents, biru had to leave for us to pursue higher studies and the band was left without a vocals. it was arshad who suggested his old school friend from maple leaf, shoaib rahman who he had met on a chance meeting. shoaib is invited over for a try out at the old d.o.h.s. community center near banani, dhaka, where the band was practising at the time. they immediately clicked and shoaib joins the band. at the time rock strata was covering bands like black sabbath, iron maiden, metallica, and scorpions. scorpions and iron maiden were shoaib's speciality.