Drawing from diverse styles of music like extreme metal, jazz and ambient, London-based band, Asian Death Crustacean, emerge with their own kind of progressive rock heaviness and intricacy, and deliver their first album, Baikal.
Composed of six songs, Baikal is a daring 45-minute work, something which succeeds both at flaunting the band's apparently bold and technical musicianship, and at divulging a series of different emotions and atmospheres though the variety of the sounds it deftly brings together. Asian Death Crustacean cite influence from Pink Floyd and Meshuggah for the airier and heavier parts of their sound, and go as far as Tim Hecker and Steve Reich for their experimental drive.
Baikal V, the album's lengthiest track, expresses the best of both worlds, and in a little less than eleven minutes becomes a contemporary progressive sludge piece, characteristic of an album classed with the genre's past, yet, rather special.
Baikal was recorded in 2019 with Jens Bogren (Opeth, Between The Buried and Me) and David Castillo (Bloodbath, Leprous) at Fascination Street Studios, Sweden.
Cover art by Nick Steinhardt
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