Artcell is a Bangladeshi progressive metal band formed in 23 October 1999, by vocalist and riff guitarist George Lincoln D'Costa, lead guitarist Ershad Zaman, bassist Saef Al Nazi Cézanne and drummer Kazi Sajjadul Asheqeen Shaju.

The first song released by Artcell was ‘Odekha Shorgo’ which was recorded for the great Azam Khan for a mixed album he was planning on.

And after four years of releasing ‘Onno Shomoy’; Artcell came up with their second album 'Oniket Prantor' on 2006 which led them widespread recognition.

[4] Before forming the band, the four founding members were school friends from Dhaka and used to get together to play Metallica songs.

They continued to play shows in the local underground scene, most notably at The Russian Cultural Center (RCC) in Dhaka.

It was both critically and commercially successful, being one of the first albums to introduce progressive metal music to Bangladeshi listeners.

After the success of Onno Shomoy, Artcell spent four years carrying out experiments with their music without releasing an album.

[6] "Aniket Prantor (No man's land)", the album's namesake, is Artcell's longest song to date, at 16 minutes and 21 seconds.

Artcell released a heavy-sounding track with Kazi Faisal Ahmed playing the solo within a very short time.

Later that year, Artcell played on their 20th anniversary open-air gig in the Expo Zone of International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB).

Artcell played on their Otritio open-air gig in the International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB).

The EP, A Change of Seasons and the album, Images and Words inspired them to challenge themselves to pursue and play progressive music.

Mike Portnoy (Dream Theatre), Vinnie Paul (Pantera) and Igor Cavalera (Sepultura) were huge influences and inspirations that shaped Shaju’s progressive style of drumming with his implementation of odd timing and creative grooves and fills most notably his variation of 16ths and 32ths notes on the hi-hat, various tricky double bass patterns as well as rhythmic ride bell hits also with a lot of variations.

This level of creativity and technique wasn’t very common among other drummers, especially the progressive genre in the country’s music scene in the early 2000s when the band first started.

Mark Knopfler of The Dire Straits was a big influence on Ershad Zaman’s lead guitar playing.

James Hetfield was a huge influence on Lincoln’s powerful vocals and heavy rhythm guitar riffs.

[15][16] He and Shaju were also huge Death Metal fans of bands like Cannibal Corpse and Sepultura when they were young.

Flea, Billy Sheehan and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden as well as other punk bands were a huge influence on Cézanne’s bass playing.

He stated in an interview with Bass Musician that as a kid he didn’t want to play common instruments.