New Music Revue: New Age Doom refuse to recognize musical boundaries on second album

New Age Doom
Himalayan Dream Techno
(We Are Busy Bodies)
4/5

Vancouver-based experimental metal band New Age Doom is back with their second LP, Himalayan Dream Techno, the follow-up to their 2019 self-titled debut.

Driven at its core by drummer Eric Breitenbach and multi-instrumentalist Greg Valou, Himalayan Dream Techno is very difficult to classify. Resembling a modern-day collaboration of Zappa, Sabbath, and Pink Floyd, lead single “Acoustolectric Invocation” offers up a unique blend of guitar, synth, bells, and feedback played over a wickedly improvised train wreck that never sees Breitenbach double back on a beat.

Valou and Breitenbach show both mastery and versatility as they contrast sounds and styles through some of the more ambient and meditative movements, like “Mountains of Mist,” with the album’s heavier cuts.

On Himalayan Dream Techno, New Age Doom simply refuse to recognize musical boundaries and they explore the outer reaches. At times ominous and meditative, and at other times messy yet calculated, this is a great record that offers a new take on doom, noise, drone, or whatever subgenre you care to place it in.